Eleven defendants jailed in Cork mega tax fraud case

On Tuesday, the Santa Maria da Feira court sentenced 59 people to prison, 11 of which were effective, and fined 25 companies in a case of major tax fraud in the cork sector.

A total of 124 defendants, including 34 companies, were charged with crimes related to qualified tax fraud, 84 defendants were convicted and 40 were acquitted.

During the announcement of the decision, the presiding officer explained that several defendants were acquitted of all or some crimes for lack of corpus delicti or their actions were decriminalized due to the fact that the damage caused amounted to less than 15 thousand euros.

There was also a defendant charged with computer forgery who was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The panel of judges gave nine men and two women effective prison sentences ranging from five years and seven months to 12 years and 10 months imprisonment.

The presiding judge stressed that the two defendants, sentenced to the most severe sentences (12 years and 10 months and 12 years and seven months), are responsible for damages to the state amounting to almost 10 million euros.

48 defendants were also sentenced to suspended sentences ranging from one year to one month and five years in prison. In this case, the defendants will have to pay the amount of damages caused to the state during the deferred sentence period, which the court set at three and five years.

The panel of judges also fined 25 companies with fines ranging from €1,300 to €25,950.

The hearing of the case began on September 20, 2021 in the Europarque Santa Maria da Feira, district of Aveiro, due to the large number of procedural subjects involved in the case.

The case involves a false invoice scheme that operated between 2010 and 2016 to obtain undue VAT and IRC tax advantages and to eliminate or reduce the amount of tax payable to the government.

The defendants included several Cork businessmen who allegedly purchased fictitious accounts in exchange for cash rewards, as well as several individuals accused of selling accounts in the name of shell companies without any real activity.

In addition to the prison sentence, the prosecutor’s office demanded that an amount of 25.7 million euros be recognized as lost to the state, which corresponded to the financial benefits allegedly received by the accused from committing the crime.

Initially, 169 defendants were charged, but six of them were not charged with some or all of the crimes with which they were accused, and a total or partial stay of the case was ordered, with independent proceedings initiated against several defendants.

During the trial, some of the defendants also died, and criminal cases against several dissolved and liquidated companies were also declared dropped.