Importer company offered a bribe of BGN 40,000 to cover up findings for 255 cars
In the course of an inspection by the Customs Agency, which was announced at the end of June this year, 1203 cases of car contributions from the USA and Canada have been identified so far, for which there are basic suspicions that understated values have been declared and accepted, in order to avoid the payment of customs duties and VAT. The inspection of the coverage of the period 01.01.2019 to 01.06.2021 and is carried out throughout the country. Most cases were opened by the territorial directorates of Burgas Customs and Plovdiv Customs, and only in these territorial directorates the budget in the amount of BGN 2,500,000 duty and VAT is expected to be included. As a result of the intensified customs control in recent months, the legacy of the introduction of luxury cars from these two destinations has been taken into account, during which time the declared customs value has increased significantly. Counter-information has been requested from the US and Canadian customs authorities in the field of international cooperation, and so far no answers have been pressed. In the meantime, inspections of the companies – carriers are carried out under the customs subsequent control.
On the occasion of such an inspection, pre-trial proceedings were instituted under the supervision of the Sliven District Prosecutor’s Office for a crime under Art. 304 para. 1 of the Penal Code for a proposed gift (bribe), which the customs officers refused.
The employees of TD Customs Burgas have established within the last control of the accounting documents, which are available in the reporting of the company factors for import of 255 cars from Canada and the USA, do not match in value and details with customs representatives and attached to the declarations for admission. for free circulation (import). In order to convince them to cover up their findings, representatives of an inspected legal entity offered BGN 40,000 to two customs officers, for whom they reported at the same time. The case is being investigated by the OD of the Ministry of Interior – Sliven.
Additional cases were identified in the initial inspection announced at the end of June 2021, in which TD Customs Burgas identified 29 cases in which cars, in order to correct the acceptance of customs value – up to 10 times lower than again at auction and commercial sites described as “crashed”, “damaged”, “defective”, “flooded”, “hit by hail”, as well as “with mechanical problems” and others that are not visible and are displayed only with technical expertise. It became clear that in the period 01.01.2019 to 01.06.2021 in customs institutions in the structure of TD Customs Burgas (then South Sea) can be allowed for free circulation (import) luxury cars, for which it was found that with declared and accepted greatly reduced customs values in order to avoid the payment of customs duties and VAT.
Cases were found in which a photo material for crashed cars was attached during the customs clearance, but in the course of the inspection it was established that it did not correspond to the ones actually presented to the customs offices. At the beginning of June, three luxury cars were detained, described in documents as crashed. During an inspection carried out by the renewed staff of the Port of Burgas Center, it was established that there were no consequences of accidents on the cars, and the declared values did not correspond to their ratio.
Source: Customs Agency
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