Major searches with more than 500 customs officers in the morning in Hesse, among others, especially in the Rhine-Main area and the Wetzlar area in Central Hesse: The emergency services searched 39 premises and arrested several people. The suspect: organized tax evasion.
A total of 13 people have been identified. Arrest warrants and some property arrests were issued against five men aged 30, 37, twice 41 and 66, who were executed early in the morning, according to the Darmstadt public prosecutor’s office and the main customs office of Erfurt. The accused allegedly withheld social security contributions and evaded taxes in an organized manner in the construction and cleaning sectors.
Bogus bills to cover undeclared work
In particular, the defendants allegedly carried out undeclared construction work with employees who were not registered in Social Security or who paid too little gross wages and for whom no or too little wage tax had been paid. To cover the undeclared work, the companies involved would have exchanged false invoices, according to the accusation of the investigators. The men are also said to have concealed their real identities with fake IDs.
Damages of more than two million euros
According to current estimates, the damage caused is over two million euros, according to the responsible investigators in Darmstadt and Erfurt. At the moment there is a suspicion that the defendants have been building since 2016 a very intertwined network of chain frauds, in which several companies are involved. During the searches of residential and commercial premises in Hesse and Bavaria, the agents secured a lot of evidence, including computers and smartphones.
