Tax evasion in taxi services: police pursue ten people, damage exceeds 300 million crowns
Police have accused eight foreign nationals and two Czechs of VAT fraud in the operation of taxi services via Uber and Bolt. The damage caused exceeds 300 million crowns.
Ten suspects charged with tax fraud in taxi services, damage exceeds 300 million
Czech police are pursuing ten people — eight foreign nationals and two Czech nationals — for widespread VAT evasion in the operation of taxi services through digital platforms Uber and Bolt. The damage caused to the state has been assessed in two groups of perpetrators at more than 300 million crowns, according to prazsky.denik.cz.
The accused face criminal prosecution for participation in an organised criminal group and tax evasion. Seven of them have been remanded in custody by the court. Among the accused are primarily nationals of Uzbekistan. They face up to 13 years imprisonment. The case is supervised by the High State Prosecutor's Office in Prague.
"The case is for us another example of organised crime moving into the field of economics and digital services," said Jiří Mazánek, head of the National Centre against Organised Crime. According to him, this is an all-European trend. "People from post-Soviet structures are exploiting legal loopholes in the individual countries where they operate," he described.
According to criminal investigators, the group has since 2022 been building and running a network of commercial companies with clearly divided roles: some members were responsible for managing companies and recruiting drivers, others were in charge of accounting or managing bank accounts. The purpose of the structure was to systematically reduce tax liability and gain unfair advantage over competitors.
Jiří Žežulka of the General Financial Directorate described the case as one of the largest tax cases in the field of taxi services in Czechia. He stated that the state has concluded a memorandum with the platforms Uber and Bolt on information exchange and is negotiating with them about changes to their internal processes.
Source: Google News CZ — Crime (cs)