Fifteen held in treasury by suspicions of corruption – publico

 
         

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
 

Two hundred inspectors of the Judicial Police (PJ) carried out early on Tuesday a mega-operation in the area of ​​Lisbon and Greater Lisbon with searches tens of Finance offices. During the operation Tax Free were arrested 15 people “ among which are employees, attorneys, official business and accountants for the alleged crimes of bribery and accepting bribes for illegal acts, improper receipt of benefit and computer falsity “ , said PJ in a statement . The state will have been injured in several million euros.

Among the suspects are directors of finance services. In fact, in a statement, the Attorney General’s Office lists among the target, “tax administration technicians, tax inspectors, finance chiefs, a director of the Tax Authority services, a principal deputy finance, a member of the center for Fiscal Studies and Customs Revenue Authority (aT), lawyers, chartered accountants and businessmen. “

the Fiscal Studies center of aT, in addition to the work it produces on the application laws, makes studies of pieces of legislation related to tax issues and provide opinions on the application of the law to specific cases.

at issue, confirmed the PUBLIC source of PJ, is an investigation into a scheme that allowed companies get debt to the tax authorities regularization statements, but with false data. This allowed them to participate in tenders. The PGR also described that research concentrated “ on alleged links have been established between some suspects, employees of the tax Authority, and official accounts technicians, lawyers, businessmen, other service providers in the tax area and taxpayers who show themselves willing to pay monetary amounts or other amounts to be supplied to them tax information, bank or property of third parties and tax advice. “

the operation, which also included six prosecutors, four criminal investigation of judges and inspectors of TA, was conducted by the National Combat Unit Corruption PJ in connection with an investigation of the Department of investigation and Penal Action Lisbon. It involved about 120 domiciliary and no house searches. Besides the presence in the offices of Finance – a Lisbon 8 in Alvalade, it was one of those that were visited by the investigators – the authorities conducted searches of lawyers and business offices, said the PGR.

the PJ inspectors collected documents in various offices of directors of Finance. In this scheme, the directors and employees of the tax authorities would obtain economic advantages. – Entrepreneurs paid them to get the false statements

In response to the news of searches in the offices of the Tax Authority (AT) that are within the purview of the Ministry of Finance, the protection was limited to confirm that “the current operation is being done with the help” of his own aT, “assisting the criminal investigation of the Judicial Police in this process.”

For the president of the tax workers Union (STI), Paul Ralha, “there is no question the suitability of most workers’ tax machine. “Given the known data, we are talking about people with leadership positions in management positions or management, which may have established relationships with members of civil society – tax specialists, lawyers, chartered accountants,” he said, speaking to PUBLIC.

condemning the “behaviors that may constitute as possibly to crimes of passive and / or active corruption”, also the Trade Union Association of Professionals of the Tax and Customs Inspectorate (PATI) has underlined in a statement that professional competence of aT employees can not be called into question “by these irregularities (sporadic and identified situations), especially when configure the practice of criminal offenses”.