2024-08-22 00:54:28
Six people bought and resold agricultural products, and one of the detainees withdrew 57 million from different banks in a year
What is the connection and role of MP Jeyhan Ibryamov in a scheme that damaged the budget by 11 million leva from draining VAT and corporate tax?
Two news – one official about the broken crime group of six people that operated from 2021 until this August 9th. The other, unofficial – for a political umbrella over them, went parallel on Wednesday.
GDBOP and the National Revenue Agency described the two directions of the scheme at a press conference. First fuse companies were created, sometimes even to people who are citizens of non-EU countries. They bought cereals and oilseeds, but from unknown producers. Thus they saved the corporate tax of 10%. This production is under a special regime and no VAT is due. The companies have no ownership of the agricultural land, no equipment, no subsidies. They submitted documents for a turnover of BGN 90 million. Therefore, the GDBOP and the National Revenue Agency believe that the gang has saved BGN 9 million in corporate tax, explained the deputy head of the revenue agency, Evgeni Nankov. Then they sold to real companies, but at a lower price because of the saved taxes.
At the second level of the scheme, the group tried to cover up the cash flow because they already had fictitious documents for the origin of the production. Invoiced goods exchange to real companies. They distributed the product to end users. At the same time, the gang also traded in fertilizers and engaged in transport. It goes through the general procedure and is subject to 20% VAT. Then the real importer of the fertilizers, in order not to pay the tax, used invoices from other companies of the lowest level, where the tax due was not paid. There, the damage to the budget is about BGN 2 million.
The fictitious owners of the companies – low-income Bulgarians – were paid between BGN 500 and 1,000, explained the deputy director of GDBOP senior commissioner Kalin Litov.
“Luxury cars were fictitiously acquired, used by persons close to the company and with incomes that do not correspond to their occupations”, succinctly reported the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the occasion of the August 9 operation, led by the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office. During the operation, a luxury car, numerous seals, powers of attorney, invoices, bills of lading, scale and notes, electronic signatures, laptops were seized.
It was the announcement at the press conference that a luxury car had been taken, coincided with the unofficial release of photos of the Jeep seizure, it happened with the permission of the Sofia City Court. The make and color of the car is identical to the one with which Ceyhan Ibryamov was photographed by journalists some time ago entering Ahmed Dogan’s sea shed near Rosenets. Websites circulated the photo of the jeep seizure, announcing that it was a car driven by a politician.
However, his name was not mentioned at the briefing of the GDBOP and the National Narcotics Agency. And he is not among those arrested, who are three, and the other three of the group have been released on cash bonds and a bond.
The independents from DPS (Dogan) promised to comment on the case on Thursday. This happens a week after the action of the Anti-Corruption Commission against the businessman Rumen Gaitanski-Valka, who is a friend and former partner of the honorary chairman of the party. To this day, Dogan’s people have no comment about the million unreturned loan from BBR to Valka, part of which was used to pay off the debt of the Varna TPP. A few days ago, Dogan officially left this company.
Ibryamov Birshen’s wife is Dogan’s longtime secretary and remained loyal to him after the war broke out between Delyan Peevski and the so-called “deribes” around the honorary chairman.
The National Revenue Agency has taken measures, control proceedings are being carried out, facts and circumstances are being clarified. There are also seized assets and accounts to get the money back.
The process itself is relatively long, as there is a judicial appeal and control. The important thing is that measures have been taken and that the state gets what it owes, said Nankov.
In order to launder the money, the gang also bought apartments, a production base, an entire cooperative outside Sofia, villas. It was in the cooperative that Ibryamov was found to be residing.
One of the detained men was found to have withdrawn BGN 57 million from various banks in just one and a half years. The money arrived in the companies’ accounts in the morning, and he went to withdraw it the same afternoon. The smallest amount was BGN 300 thousand.
The man who withdrew the cash was remanded in custody by the Sofia Court of Appeal on Tuesday. There are two others in the cell with him. However, the leader of the group is not among them. He is at large. “That’s what the court decided,” Litov said, and did not specify whether the accused is one of the two who have been released on bail, or is free with a bond. (24 cups)