Fraud bust in Poland

Police have uncovered an organized crime ring that has defrauded the Polish government of millions.

In mid-December, Poland’s Ministry of Finance announced the results of the bust of an nation-wide organized crime ring that has, to date, defrauded the country’s treasury of 70 million Polish zloty (PLN, or USD $18.8 million). This was done through the falsification of monetary figures and amounts of equipment connected with the trade of smartphones and personal electronics using fictitious VAT invoices. Both Polish and international firms were involved in the fraudulent trading.

The bust was a joint effort of the National Tax Administration (Polish: Krajowa Administracyjna Skarba, or KAS) and the Central Police Investigation Bureau (Polish: Centralne Biuro Sledcze Policji, or CBSP), who tracked the fraudulent activity over multiple years from 2014 to 2017. In sum, ninety-three Polish entities participated in these illegal trades as buffers, brokers, and so-called “disappearing” taxpayers. In Polish legal parlance, disappearing taxpayers are businesses or companies opened under fake names or the names of the deceased solely for collecting money without paying VAT, and closing without leaving a trace. Moreover, these invoices documented fictitious transactions that did not reflect actual economic events that matched up with declarations made to tax offices.

Trading Seventeen people were detained as homes, businesses, and warehouses were raided across the nation in bigger cities like Warsaw, Lodz, and Wroclaw, as well as more provincial towns such as Biala Podlaska and Gorzow Wielkopolski. Of these, eight were sent to detention. Millions in assets and property were seized including jewelry, high-end automobiles and cash worth 2.6 million PLN, and bank assets in three currencies were frozen amounting to 305,000 PLN, €4,500, and $10,500.