Libertatea<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe group exploited vulnerabilities in the country’s tax system. \u201cIn Romania, regarding VAT fraud, we have seen an involvement of the Italian mafia, which has moved part of its activities there. We have seen these online markets that are organized in Romania. So I could say that Romania is not protected,\u201d Kovesi declared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also specified that Romania is not excluded when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence for nefarious purposes. \u201cWe see a lot of cryptocurrency trading, for example. We see this in Romania as well, because investing in cryptocurrencies seems to be a resource through which money laundering is attempted, but also a way to preserve the criminal proceeds. The problem is VAT fraud, namely how it can be better detected and, if it is detected, why it is not being reported,\u201d stated the head of the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked to explain why Romania has become a fertile territory for the Italian mafia, Kovesi noted that there are groups from third countries that are \u201cpractically invading Europe.\u201d She gave the example of the Chinese mafia, which may see Romania as a fertile territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we generally look at all VAT frauds, I could say that organized groups and mafias are no longer national, they are complex, you have all nationalities there, both from the EU and outside of it,\u201d the Romanian prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
Highly mobile and well-funded, the groups have access to experts such as accountants and lawyers who explain what vulnerabilities exist in each member state, where it is better to establish their headquarters, so that the risk of being detected is as low as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the same interview, the EPPO head said that although Romania has the largest deficit regarding VAT collection, the level of detection and reporting of VAT frauds, at least to the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, is very low.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She stated that last year, out of nearly 400 cases investigated by the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office in Romania, only 12 involved VAT. \u201cRomania has the largest deficit when it comes to VAT collection. It is something I have said several times. Over 90% of this can be explained only through fraud,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
radu@romania-insider.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, or EPPO, Laura Codru\u0163a Kovesi, stated in an interview that the Italian and Chinese mafias may be involved in VAT fraud in Romania.\u00a0 The Italian mafia has already committed fraud with European funds in the country, including money from the post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility, Kovesi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}