Prosecutor's Office of Tirana has launched Wednesday investigations into 13 entities with various activities in the capital, as it is suspected that through a VAT fraud scheme they have caused the state an economic damage of over 3 million EUR. 

The court has left 13 people in prison, as it is suspected that officials are also involved in this criminal activity, for whom the investigations are being carried out.

From this criminal activity, citizens through fictitious entities have been able to benefit from non-payment of tax obligations and benefiting from them illegally. 

"The Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance in Tirana, in close cooperation with the Directorate of Tax Investigation at the General Directorate of Taxes and with the Local Police Directorate of Tirana, within the framework of Criminal Procedure No. 1054 of 2020, after several months of work with special investigation methods, made it possible to execute the Decision no.1981 of the Basic Registry dated 24.09.2022 of the Court of the Judicial District of Tirana, which has imposed a security measure of "arrest in prison" to 13 citizens as well as the security measure of "obligation to appear" to 4 citizens, closely connected with the fictious entities/subjects  such as “No-El Construction” with no. L72302057R of NIPT/NUIS, “G.S Construction” with NUIS no. M01704017D, “Fam Construksion” with NUIS no. L81408017V, “Tirana Universal Construksione with NUIS no. L81721022Q, “Glob Construksion” with NUIS no. M21416014J, “Fredi 2021”, with NUIS no. M11505007T, “Xhersi 2021” with NUIS no. M11705012P, “Aluku Grup” with NUIS no. M01922011F, “Joam” with NUIS no. M12315033I, as well as closely connected with beneficiary entities/subjects “Mihola” with NUIS no. L81616001M, “E.L.2020 construksion” with NUIS no. M01420028U, “Amarildo Hasrama” with NUIS no. L61410014F, “Priam 20” with NUIS no. M02006001I. 

As above, from the analysis and the study of the data of the companies, subject to investigation, it turns out that they functioned as suppliers, issued fictious invoices making no purchase and exercising legal activity at no time. These fictious invoices were directly injected to the commercial companies operating in different fields, in the value of ALL 1,257,082,590, thus causing a financial loss in VAT and Profit Tax to the state, approximately ALL 300,000,000. The latter, by accounting for this value, have reduced the monthly VAT payment, as well as by fictitiously increasing the annual expenses, they have reduced the Profit Tax rate.

These subjects in cooperation with each-other have consumed elements of the criminal offense “Fraud Scheme in relation to the Value Added Tax as well as “Cooperation”, provided for by Articles144/a and 25 of the Criminal Code. From this activity, the citizens through the fictious entities were able to benefit from non-payment of tax liabilities and benefiting from them illegally, thus causing a financial loss to the state in the amount of over 3 million euros.

Also, it is suspected that other persons and entities as well as state administration officials have been involved in this criminal fraud scheme, for whom investigations and procedural actions continue in order to document the entire criminal activity", the official announcement stated.