The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has imposed penalties on a label printing company from the municipality of Enschede and its 62-year-old director from Vriezenveen for fraud. The director receives a total of 360 hours of community service. The company must pay a fine of 50,000 euros. Additionally, a 46-year-old former employee from the municipality of Nijverdal receives a total of 240 hours of community service.
Tax Fraud
The criminal investigation started after an inquiry by the Tax Authority. It was found that the directors personal expenses were reported as business costs of the company. This is tax fraud. Business costs are often deductible from a companys taxable profit. By classifying personal expenses as business costs, the profit of a company is artificially lowered. In this way, the suspects tried to pay less tax than required.
False Invoices
Further investigation also revealed that the company was guilty of factoring fraud. In factoring, a company sells outstanding invoices to an external party. The company receives money quickly instead of waiting for customers to pay. In this case, the suspects sold false invoices to two financing companies. This way, the company gained more leverage from those financing companies to borrow money. This is a form of fraud. A former employee of the company assisted in the fraud by also recording the false invoices in the administration. At the same time, this employee embezzled large sums of money from the company.
Admission of Guilt
The involved parties have mostly admitted guilt and ensured that legal restitution has taken place. All evaded taxes up to an amount of 781,894.00 euros have been repaid. Additionally, the procedure between the label company and the former employee who embezzled money has also been concluded. This has led the OM to decide not to bring the case to court, but to impose a penalty order. A penalty order does lead to a criminal record.