Five people, detained in a state fraud file for almost 20 million euros. Grouping was assisted by an ANAF inspector

Five persons performing the positions of administrators or representatives of companies were detained on Friday by DNA prosecutors for tax evasion, the institution announces in a press release. They are accused that in the last five years have created a fraud scheme by which they have harmed the state budget with 96.131.255 lei (almost 20 million euros) through non -payment of taxes.

According to Digi24 citing judicial sources, the group consists of people behind the leasingautomobile.ro platform and the companies owned by these people. In its center is Gabriel Hăulică, a businessman who has been in the viewfinder of investigators for tax evasion offenses. He also owned companies that went bankrupt with debts of tens of millions of lei in the state.

Also, according to Digi sources, Gigi Bracaci was also detained in the file, described on the Leasingautomobile.ro platform as “a brave entrepreneur” who “studied and experienced in this field, crystalling a vision of a civilized, transparent trade, at correct costs in the sales of run cars”.

The other three detained defendants are employees of the companies owned by Hăulică and Bracaci.

The group was supported by an ANAF employee

The group was assisted by a superior inspector within the County Administration of Public Finance Iași, identified by DNA as Elena Liliana Beleca. On her behalf and two other persons, without special quality, the prosecutors ordered the measure of judicial control for 60 days.

“Between 2021-January 2025, a fraud scheme that involved several interconnected commercial companies would have been created that carry out” second-hand “luxury cars purchased from EU countries, with the final purpose of paying the fiscal obligations due to the state budget, the damage is estimated, to this time, 96.131.255 lei ”, states the prosecutors.

According to the prosecutors, the evasion was produced by “highlighting, in the accounting documents and in the legal documents of the companies involved, of fictitious operations and expenses that would not have been based on real operations, based on supporting documents issued on behalf of those companies or having as scriptural beneficiaries those companies, as well as the creation of trading, in the carousel, artificially, of some companies (of “can” type) in the purchases of cars from the community space, under reverse taxation, made by the final beneficiary companies “.

How the fraud scheme worked

DNA prosecutors say the fraud scheme was operating on two levels. In the first, there were companies that operate in sight and that went directly into customer relations, took over the orders of cars from them, carried out the procedures for the acquisition of the goods from the intra -Community space, coordinated the logistics operations, performed the formalities prior to the registration – when the case, and the goods directly, and the goods directly, of “can.”

The second level contained “bidon” type companies that were artificially interposed in different commercial transactions, so that, based on the supporting documents issued on their behalf, the companies that were real beneficiaries of the mechanism registered expenses and deduced the VAT related to the purchases of cars, and the VAT was compensated from other commercial relations.

The 11 companies reported intra-Community acquisitions of used cars (from Germany, mainly) of 465 million lei, for which they paid VAT of 7.8 million lei, although the real value of the value added tax exceeded 88 million lei.

About the ANAF Inspector, the prosecutors say that “although they had the representation of the development, through the companies controlled by the mentioned defendants, some fiscal frauds, during the carried out verifications or which they initiated, did not follow the elucidation of these aspects, but would have tried to hide the irregularities identified.”

DNA requests the preventive arrest of the defendants

In order to recover the damage, the prosecutors instituted seizure on houses, apartments, land worth 31 million lei, on over 50 luxury cars and money found at searches, respectively 307,000 euros, 431,000 lei, $ 75,000 and £ 2,500.

The five detained defendants will be presented today to the Bucharest Court with a preventive arrest proposal for 30 days.