Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – A multi-million-euro fraud in the plastics trade sector has been uncovered by the Turin and Ancona Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police), who have executed 18 precautionary measures against, among others, entrepreneurs and professionals. Assets and financial assets worth approximately €25 million have also been seized. Criminal conspiracy to commit transnational VAT fraud in the plastics trade sector, using a complex "carousel" scheme, is the alleged crime with which the Turin and Ancona financial police, following investigations coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) – Turin Office, have executed the order issued by the Turin investigating judge against 18 individuals.
In particular, investigations by the Guardia di Finanza (Fiamme Gialle) of the Ancona and Turin PEF units revealed the criminal organization, based in the Marche region and with branches in various regions of Italy and abroad, instrumentally used "shell" and "filter" companies with offices in Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. These companies exchanged invoices for non-existent transactions, allowing the "formal" purchasers of the goods (plastic polymers or, in some cases, footwear) to unduly deduct the VAT applied to the transactions, most of which never actually took place.
According to the findings of the financial police, the organization allegedly managed all the companies involved in the fraudulent scheme, simulating commercial transactions whose sole purpose was to reveal, through documentation only, the purchase of goods by domestic clients, thereby granting them the right to deduct VAT. This was done through shell companies ('filter' companies) located abroad and in northern and central Italy (lacking an operational structure or employees and registered to mere front men). However, these companies systematically failed to file tax returns and pay the due tax.
In some cases, in the initial stages of the fraud, it emerged that, in response to physical transfers of the same consignments of goods from Italy (Gorizia) to Austria (Furnitz or Villach) and vice versa, separate invoices were issued which documented, however, sales to Eastern European companies to which the goods were never actually shipped.
Therefore, the end customers always received the same shipment of material, with the same packaging, despite different invoices. The proceeds of the tax evasion were then used to pay the people involved in the entire structure, which also relied on a network of external "financiers" who provided the perpetrators with large sums of money on loan, which were used to fuel the circular payment system supporting the false invoicing.
Investigations conducted by the Marche and Piedmont financial police, analyzed by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, have identified the issuance and use, between 2018 and 2022, of invoices for non-existent transactions amounting to approximately €100 million. This resulted in damage to the budgets of the European Union and the Italian State, estimated at approximately €25 million, corresponding to the profit from the alleged fraud. The investigation also identified 56 individuals involved in the fraudulent scheme, in various capacities, in the management of 34 Italian companies (including 'missing traders', 'buffers', and 'brokers') and eight foreign companies ('conduits'). These individuals were held liable for the crimes of criminal conspiracy to commit IVS fraud, issuance and use of invoices for non-existent transactions, failure to file tax returns, and improper offsetting of tax credits.
Based on the findings, the investigating judge at the Court of Turin, acting on a proposal from the European Public Prosecutor's Office of the Piedmontese capital, issued a provision against the principal suspects, ordering the execution of 11 precautionary custody orders—eight for prison and three for house arrest—and seven disqualification orders, including temporary bans from practicing professional or entrepreneurial activities and an obligation to report to the judicial police, against, among others, entrepreneurs and professionals involved in the fraud. The precautionary seizure, including the equivalent amount, of financial assets and movable and immovable property against 23 individuals and 16 businesses was also ordered, amounting to approximately €25 million, the sum quantified as the total profit from the alleged crimes.
Over 140 Finance Police officers from the Economic and Financial Police Units of Turin and Ancona were deployed in the operation, supported by military personnel from the territorially competent departments in Piedmont, Marche, Lazio, Veneto, Lombardy, Puglia, and Calabria, with the assistance of canine units.
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