- Who is the company that in April 2021 undertook the procurement of 3 million self-tests after a tender by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection for 10,080 million euros.
- The trick to not pay VAT and contributions to the State
- Suspicious transactions with a company that was founded in February 2016, with a capital of 2,000 euros and the object of work is the services of issuing utility bills!
By Vangelis Triantis
The company SWISS med is allegedly involved, according to a finding of the Anti-Revenue from Criminal Activities Authority, in a circuit of virtual transactions with other companies aimed at non-payment of VAT and contributions to the State. It is the company that in April 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, had undertaken the procurement of 3 million self-tests following a tender by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection for an amount of 10,080 million euros. The company was eventually disqualified for failing to deliver the self-tests on time. In addition to the Anti-Revenue Authority, the auditors of the Bureau of internal revenue were also ordered to investigate in the context of a prosecution order, which was drafted by Data Journalists, who issued an information note to the prosecution authorities.
In January 2022, a report was issued by the A Investigation Unit
of Financial Information of the Anti-Revenue from the Criminal Activities Authority, which was forwarded to the prosecuting authorities. The finding concerned several companies and individuals, including SWISS Med. The companies allegedly “conducted millions of euros of transactions with each other and with other companies, having the typology of the virtual transaction circuit (carousel type and missing trader)”. In this way, they managed “to avoid the payment of huge amounts of VAT income tax and contributions to the State, on the other hand, to appear as supposedly solvent, non-public debtors of public works worth millions of euros”. The transactions reportedly took place in 2020 and 2021.
However, all this resulted in “distortion of the “conditions of fair competition”, the “proper functioning of the market and ultimately of the national economy”, as underlined in the finding of the Anti-Revenue from Criminal Activities Authority. In fact, in January 2022, freezing order number 9/14.12022 was issued against the assets of denounced natural or legal persons.
Inspection order in the Bureau of internal revenue
A few months later, and specifically in October 2022, an audit order was issued by the head of the operational department of the Bureau of internal revenue, in the context of a prosecution order of the Athens Public Prosecutor’s Office and in particular of the Office of Economic Crime. The prosecutors demanded in their order that a preliminary examination be carried out as to whether the offenses of tax evasion and money laundering had been committed.
The auditors of the Bureau of internal revenue were asked to carry out an investigation, which however was not carried out. The reason was that they were essentially not in time, because by October 14, 2022, the freezing of the assets of the persons involved, issued by the president of the Anti-Crime Authority, was expiring. Instead of a conclusion, the auditors undertook to draw up an information note based on the findings of the investigation of the Anti-Criminal Revenue Authority and excerpts from decisions issued by the Athens Council of Misdemeanors that had rejected the appeals of the companies involved against the provision of commitment of the chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority. The information note was handed over to prosecutors.
Virtual invoices
More specifically, order number 1940/2022 of the Council of Misdemeanors describes, inter alia, the transactions of SWISS med with one of the companies involved, namely PETROL FUELS. A company founded in February 2016, with a capital of 2,000 euros and the object of work being the services of issuing utility bills for residential buildings, but also secondary activities such as electricity distribution services, fuel trade, and retail trade of medical consumables.
Specifically, on December 23, 2020, PETROL FUELS SA concluded a cooperation agreement of indefinite duration with SWISS med. Swiss Med undertook to supply Petrol with medical and personal protective equipment from factories abroad that represent them. Petrol provided two bank transfer receipts to SWISS MED during the investigation by the Anti-Fraud Authority. One concerned an amount of 916,669 euros allegedly paid in October 2020 and the other an amount of 380,000 euros paid on 20 November 2020 with the indication “payment of a proforma invoice. In total, the transactions amounted to EUR 1,296 million.
In the action against the asset freeze provision, PETROL invoked four further invoices worth EUR 1,818 million for its transactions with Swiss Med. However, as it is underlined, it eventually submitted only an invoice dated 8 January 2020 which did not bear any legal invoice element. That is, a publisher, a recipient, a place of delivery, and a method of payment, while it was…totally unsigned. In addition, as underlined, it received from SWISS MED a total amount of 90,456 euros in December and March 2021 as a refund due to the cancellation of an order. That is, Swiss Med issued to Petrol Fuels invoices with a total value of 1,818 million euros, while it actually paid 1,206 million euros.
“Consequently, for the remaining 611,994 euros, it can be assumed that the corresponding invoices are fictitious in this amount and were used for the illegal VAT deduction,” the decision of the Council of Misdemeanors states.
In addition, PETROL FUELS, as it emerged from the opening of its bank accounts, in the year 2020 had credits of a total amount of 14,321 million euros and debits of 12,972 million euros. However, as underlined, these are amounts that do not correspond to the customer statements of income/expenses that were audited from the beginning, nor was any relevant invoice submitted for these amounts.
«…Based on the above, there are serious indications that the applicants, natural and legal persons, have organized and arranged a virtual commercial cooperation project between themselves and with other companies, as mentioned in the Authority’s Finding, constituting a circuit, in the context of which, through transactions of particularly high value, many of which are absolutely opaque, through deposits and withdrawals of money in cash, manage to generate amounts of millions of euros, some of which are of unknown origin since they are not currently justified as deriving from a legitimate reason, not to be taxed for them through the issuance of virtual invoices leading to a balance of VAT that they would otherwise have to pay to the state, to legalize black money through the use of the financial sector by allegedly invoking loans from other legal entities or supposedly refunds from cancellations of orders to accumulate millions of tax and social security contributions to a single company type of “disappeared trader” who will never pay to the state its debts and worst of all to appear to the tax office and banks as legally functioning and as tax and social security authorities, thus achieving the award of public contracts worth millions of euros, deceiving the Greek State and local authorities and, in addition, creating conditions of unfair competition and distorting the functioning of the market and the national economy”, the decision of the Council of Misdemeanors rejects the appeal of SWISS MED.
With a capital of just 30,000 euros
SWISS MED was heavily involved in the media in April 2021 when it undertook the procurement of 3 million self-tests following a tender by the General Secretariat for Civil Protection for an amount of 10,080 million euros. SWISS MED was founded just a few months ago with a share capital of just 30,000 euros, while it had no experience in major competitions. Before taking part in the tender for the supply of self-tests, it had concluded contracts with two hospitals in the region for the supply of surgical gloves and personal protective equipment, which did not exceed 29,000 euros. Eventually, the commission of 3 million self-tests was canceled, resulting in the forfeiture of the guarantee letter of 504,000 euros in favor of the State.
