A maneuver of under-invoicing of exports and foreign currency flight involving accountants, notaries, lawyers, financiers, logistics operators and foreign trade assistants was dismantled after a joint investigation between Customs and the DGI, it was officially reported this Tuesday.
The complaint for illicit association was made by the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) before the Cordoba Federal Justice, which ordered more than 36 raids in the provinces of Córdoba, Misiones, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
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The denounced and dismantled maneuver with the collaboration of federal security forces consisted of the export of primary goods to Brazil for a value less than the real one, from there, to be sold again to third countries.
For this reason, fewer dollars entered Argentina. In turn, payments were triangulated to direct them to other destinations, AFIP sources explained.
The operations investigated by Customs and the DGI, led by Silvia Traverso and Virginia García, allowed the Justice to dismantle an illicit association that evaded and leaked foreign currency through shell companies.
After the complaint, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office No. 1 of Córdoba promoted a series of raids that were assisted by AFIP personnel and the Airport Security Police (PSA) in different provinces.
During the proceedings, three people were detained, vehicles, weapons, more than 4 million pesos, foreign exchange for 32,000 dollars, computers, notebooks, hard drives and cell phones were seized.
The denounced illegal association was made up of accountants, notaries, lawyers, financers, logistics operators and foreign trade assistants exporting under-invoiced primary products to Brazil, which had been acquired without invoices through companies without the economic capacity to acquire them.
The investigations yielded inconsistencies between members of society and the people who actually ran the firm. These, in turn, had links with natural and legal persons with a history of bad tax and customs behavior, it was reported.
With all this information, the investigation continued in the investigative areas of the DGA and the DGI, and culminated in the judicial complaint for illicit association, before the Federal Prosecutor’s Office No. 1 of Córdoba in charge of Enrique Senestrari.
In dialogue with Chain 3, Senestrari expressed: “What they did was declare the sales they made abroad below the real price and keep the collection of the real amount and not enter it into the country, which means a flight of foreign exchange.
Wherever they found a hole, they took money out of society in impressive amounts. It still needs to be determined well, but we are talking in principle of a million dollars and there is much more.
“With the AFIP, we want each of the accused to pay up to the last coin of what they make the people spend,” he added.
The charges that are imputed to more than 40 people are illicit association, smuggling, tax evasion and money laundering, the prosecutor said.
The 36 raids, involving 199 AFIP officials (both the DGA and the DGI), were carried out simultaneously on the same day. There were 15 in Córdoba, 14 in Misiones, six in Mendoza and one in Buenos Aires.
Guillermo Panero Report.