Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

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Since the project started on 1 April 1999, the cooperating agencies have devoted some 40 labour years to 15 extensive investigations. Considering that carousel fraud with mobile phones appears to have come to a virtual halt in Sweden, the investigations may have had a preventive effect. Carousel fraud has not yet proliferated outside the metropolitan areas as much as had been feared. But other kinds of products seem to have taken up some of the slack. 4.5.2 Food Products Project The Food Products Project is an interagency effort initiated by the Swedish Economic Crimes Council, which delegated implementation issues to its task force. The objective of the project is to study commerce within the Swedish food industry, as well as between Swedish companies and businesses in or outside of the EU. The inquiry is focusing on discovering, describing, prosecuting and disrupting the more serious, systematic types of VAT and selective purchase tax fraud. Light will also be shed on fraud with recycling fees when detected. Possible preventive measures to be worked out in the future are also being studied. To assess the scope of unreported EU purchases, SKV in Malmö solicited information from two active wholesale grocers in another Member State. According to the VAT Information Exchange System (VIES), the wholesalers sold approximately SEK 645 million in merchandise to Swedish businesses from 1 January 2000 through 30 June 2003. At least SEK 536 million, or 83%, of these purchases or subsequent sales went unreported in Sweden. This information has now been passed on to other regions of the country. The project covers all types of merchandise sold by food stores. The investigations have not yet dealt very extensively with perishable items. The goods most often studied are soft drinks, 3.5% beer, detergents and rinsing agents. Cash dealings are common. Tax evasion on trading in food products within the EU has many different faces. Some food distributors report only a percentage of their purchases, decoys do not report at all and purchase on behalf of someone else, and business owners in other industries make unreported purchases for private use. 50
The project is in full swing around the country. SKV is involved in extensive activities on a broad front. Various working methods are under development. The effort will intensify in 2004. A review of problem areas is under way. There is no patent solution for getting the better of this kind of evasion. Successful investigations require active interagency cooperation and good contacts abroad. SKV has made the following observations thus far. • Evasion appears to be most widespread in metropolitan areas • The investigations usually involve small neighbourhood stores • Illegal sales are known to occur • There is evasion with the system for returnable containers • Labelling regulations are being violated • Evasion has distorted competition EBM has launched many pretrial investigations. Other public prosecution and police authorities around the country are also taking part in the project. Only a few convictions have been handed down so far. FiPo participates by investigating suspicious money flows. The Board of Agriculture investigates and reports violations of the Act on Certain Beverage Containers. Customs examined food imports in the region and is now carrying out audits throughout the country. KFM contributes by enforcing attachments. 4.6 REGIONAL MONITORING EFFORTS Operation Restaurant Inspection continued in most counties throughout 2002 and 2003. The effort varies from county to county in terms of scope, the agencies involved, and the focus during any particular year. One part of the operation is a joint project of the County Administrative Board, the Police Authority, SKV, the Migration Board, municipal licensing boards and EBM. The goal of the project is to stamp out spurious business owners. In addition to the above agencies, KFM, Customs, the Social Insurance Office, the Environmental Administration and the Emergency Services take part in restaurant inspections coordinated by the County Administrative Board. Another joint project of SKV, EBM and the County Administrative Board aims at more thorough tax supervision. Approximately half of the some 50 audits that have been launched subsequently led to crime reports. 51
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ECONOMIC CRIME REPORT Report no. 20
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Economic Crime Report
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Government Swedish Ministry of Just
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Economic Crime and Efforts to Comba
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Economic Crime - Current Status and
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Economic Consequences of Economic C
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Interagency Cooperation Measures Th
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Undeclared Work • Employers who h
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A CLOSER LOOK AT UNDECLARED WORK, V
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VAT Fraud There is always a risk th
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Trends Over the Next Three Years Fo
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Concluding Remarks The purpose of t
Page 27 and 28: Contents 1. Introduction 6 2. Curre
Page 29 and 30: 10.5 NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION PROJ
Page 31 and 32: Table 31 Number of decisions by oth
Page 33 and 34: 2. Current Status of Economic Crime
Page 35 and 36: detected offences are documented, a
Page 37 and 38: sentative of both commercial goods
Page 39 and 40: mentary evidence for verifying actu
Page 41 and 42: SKV put together documentation to l
Page 43 and 44: that a certain volume of uncollecte
Page 45 and 46: Table 3 Estimated tax error linked
Page 47 and 48: The minimum tax rates on alcohol ar
Page 49 and 50: • Businesses, such as: - Tax plan
Page 51 and 52: According to the court of appeal, t
Page 53 and 54: loan prohibition, the Accounting Ac
Page 55 and 56: 4. It has a definite focus, though
Page 57: “A number of groups are engaged i
Page 60 and 61: Council and its task force have con
Page 62 and 63: Special joint consultation groups f
Page 64 and 65: 4. Intelligence and Monitoring Oper
Page 66 and 67: The total money involved in transac
Page 68 and 69: Intelligence Operations of Tax Crim
Page 70 and 71: Graph 13 Number of audits, 2000-200
Page 72 and 73: 2002 to 2003. The sums involved in
Page 74 and 75: Money Laundering, etc. A newly esta
Page 78 and 79: Manipulated cash registers are the
Page 80 and 81: professional criminals to one degre
Page 82 and 83: official figures. In the autumn of
Page 84 and 85: ookkeeping offences continued to ac
Page 86 and 87: Graph 25b Total number of reports o
Page 88 and 89: Graph 26 Cases received, 1998-2003
Page 90 and 91: Table 30 Number of decisions by EBM
Page 92 and 93: Graph 34 Average throughput time fo
Page 94 and 95: 6.5 TAX CRIME UNITS Expansion of ta
Page 96 and 97: Graph 38 Trading prohibitions, 1998
Page 98 and 99: 9. Attachment, Collection, etc. The
Page 100 and 101: Graph 43 Unpaid taxes and fees (SEK
Page 102 and 103: Since a coordinated effort to recov
Page 104 and 105: According to the proposals, the age
Page 106 and 107: and employers concerning registrati
Page 108 and 109: suggest that attitudes are continui
Page 110 and 111: 84 • a regional informational pro
Page 112 and 113: 12. International Contact and Coope
Page 114 and 115: 13. Skills and Methods Development
Page 116 and 117: Since the autumn of 2002, EBM has c
Page 118 and 119: nesses under their control, grant l
Page 120 and 121: social insurance offices could prev
Page 122 and 123: 15 Problem Areas and Future Threats
Page 124 and 125: • higher unemployment • distort
Page 126 and 127:
15.3 UNDECLARED WORK IN CASH SECTOR
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EBM’s pilot project on measures f
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15.5 AGENTS WHO AID ECONOMIC CRIME
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ied out indicate that most transact
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Appendix 1 CHANGES PROPOSED BY SAME
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SKV • SKV should have limited aut
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Transport Workers’ Union VAT Info
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Reported economic crimes have incre
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Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

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