The owner of several construction companies evaded taxes

The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office supported the state prosecution in a rather remarkable criminal case. The owner of several construction companies evaded taxes totaling more than 20,000 times the basic amount. What is interesting in this case is the atypical method used by the accused. As a rule, with the aim of evading taxes, and consequently obtaining illegal property benefits for themselves and their company, lawbreakers submit tax returns with false information to the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, and then pay taxes in a reduced amount. In this case, along with the "usual" method, the accused used a more "creative" one.

Thus, he acquired an enterprise undergoing liquidation and undertook to restore its operational capacity in the shortest possible time. The materials of the criminal case indicate that it was decided to use budget funds for this purpose. With the assistance of the chief accountant, an amended tax return containing knowingly false information was submitted for the previous tax period (when the organization still belonged to other persons). As a result, the debt owed to the Ministry of Taxes and Duties disappeared, and the budget owed the enterprise a "round" sum – almost a quarter of a billion un-denominated rubles, half of which was returned to the legal entity upon application, the rest was spent on paying fines and other payments.

Not limiting himself to taxes, the accused similarly misappropriated funds from the Social Protection Fund of the Population for the same amount. All debts disappeared again.

Despite the fact that the enterprise was given the opportunity to operate, the outcome of the story was far from rosy for at least two individuals. The defendants in the criminal case, taking into account the number and severity of the crimes committed and the unreimbursed damages, have been sentenced to imprisonment. The court's sentence has not yet entered into legal force, as it has been protested by the prosecutor and appealed by the parties. The criminal case is expected to be heard by the appellate court in the near future.

It should be noted that such crimes, by directly impacting the budget system of the Republic of Belarus, complicate the financing of state expenditures and the timely implementation of social programs, i.e., indirectly cause damage to the entire society.

Sergey Sinitsky, Prosecutor of the Department of the Regional Prosecutor's Office