The Public Ministry (MP) charged 35 defendants, including a company from Vale de Cambra and its main administrators, in a tax fraud case that would have harmed the State and the European Union by 1.6 million euros.
A statement published on the website of the Porto Regional Attorney General’s Office (PGRP) says that, by order dated March 1st, the MP charged 35 defendants, including 12 legal entities, accusing them of committing crimes of fraud in obtaining subsidies, tax fraud and tax fraud, committed between 2014 and 2017.
Among the accused is a company, based in Vale de Cambra, in the district of Aveiro, and its main directors and several partner companies.
According to the indictment, cited by the PGRP, the accused devised a plan to improperly access community funds, in a scheme that would have harmed the State and the European Union in the global amount of 1,601,309.53 euros.
“The scheme involved the use of simulated and cross-referenced invoices with companies in the same group or suppliers. These invoices titled non-existent or overvalued operations, allowing the company to declare fictitious eligible investments to obtain financial incentives and undue VAT refunds”, says the same note.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants would also use the company’s structure to pay for strictly personal expenses, with benefits including works in private homes, acquisition of luxury items, payment for hundreds of meals in restaurants.
This action also covered the payment for tourism and leisure trips by administrators and their families to destinations such as the Maldives, Brazil, Sweden and Turkey, falsely presenting them as business trips, and payment to company staff, such as cooks and caretakers, who would be exclusively dedicated to providing services in the managers’ private homes.
The PGRP also states that the defendants, during the process, voluntarily regularized a large part of the tax infractions, refunding incentive amounts that they had unduly appropriated, plus interest.
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