The damage in the case of "paper VAT" exceeded 1 billion rubles

The financial damage to the Russian budget in the criminal case of a tax evasion scheme through fictitious transactions with one-day firms amounted to more than 1 billion rubles. This was reported by law enforcement agencies on June 2.

"A criminal case was initiated at the end of March this year against more than 10 defendants. This is not counting the banal dropers, of whom hundreds have been identified, and those who were detained a little later. Searches were conducted in the cities of the capital region, in the places of residence of more than 20 suspects, and further to their addresses — to Siberia. So far, the approximate damage in this case is over 1 billion rubles, but this figure may increase," the source told TASS.

According to him, operational investigative activities against all participants of the illegal scheme have been conducted for more than one year. Law enforcement officers worked in cooperation with various agencies and law enforcement agencies.

In total, more than 20 people were detained in various regions of Russia. Among them were a lawyer, an accountant, IT specialists, as well as a former law enforcement officer.

It is specified that the case file contains about 900 volumes. By the end of the investigation and the allocation of materials to a separate production, their number may increase several times.

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In Moscow, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court chose a preventive measure in the form of detention until June 14 in relation to three defendants in the case of organizing a fraudulent scheme with "paper VAT", which resulted in damage to the budget of the Russian Federation in the amount of 1.2 trillion rubles. The detained defendants in the case, Patsukov D., Saprykin D. and Makarov A., are charged with illegal circulation of funds of payments and illegal formation of a legal entity.

In the regions of the Russian Federation, the organizers of the largest "paper VAT" site were searched a day earlier, through which tax evasion was carried out through fictitious companies. According to the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of Russia, the detainees had previously been convicted of economic crimes.

On the same day, law enforcement officers uncovered a criminal group that had deprived the budget of 1 trillion rubles of taxes. According to the investigation, from 2023 to the present, the attackers have created a network of more than 4 thousand transit organizations. Through this infrastructure, over 40,000 companies from the real sector of the economy received fictitious value-added tax deductions.