Anticorruption center identifies international group suspected of defrauding state of 30m lei

The Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crime (CCCEC) on November 17 detained two members of an international group composed of Moldovan and Russian citizens who defrauded the state budget of over 30 million lei during two years, through the agency of 15 phantom companies, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a communiqué, the Center says the given persons set up firms in the name of Transnistrian citizens or persons coming from deprived families, whom they paid for becoming fictitious managers of the companies. The two members had relationships with decision makers and obtained confirmative documents for the companies, which were used in fiscal evasion schemes, to launder money and to legalize contraband imports. They did not pay taxes and avoided paying VAT, causing thus damage to the state. Two legal cases were opened against the two persons under Article 244 of the Penal Code - fiscal evasion, and Article 243 – money laundering. The CCCEC says 222 legal cases had been started over the first ten months of this year under Article 244. 137 of them have been sent to court. There were identified 25 phantom companies that defrauded the state of 890 million lei. This year, the Center closed 64 companies involved in dubious business practices and restored 3.5 million lei into the state budget as a result of fiscal and financial inspections.