Company director, two customs brokers to be investigated

Chisinau, 29 Sep. /MOLDPRES/- A company director and two customs brokers, who caused damage to the state of over six million lei (about 320 thousand euros), when importing tobacco products from Denmark and Belgium will be investigated.

According to the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases, the director of the company arranged with the brokers to indicate in the customs documents the fact that they were importing "tobacco and tobacco substitutes" into the Republic of Moldova, when in reality, following the evidence taken by the law enforcement officers and sent to the laboratory, it was found that the goods were "fine cut tobacco for rolling into cigarettes."

The scheme was uncovered this spring, after the customs declarations were re-verified. Thus, the law enforcement officers set that the calculated import duty was illegally reduced by over six million lei, which the importing company under accusation refused to pay for the benefit of the state.

Under the law, evading the payment of import duties is punishable by a fine of up to 350,000 lei or imprisonment for a term of up to five years, with the deprivation of the right to exercise a certain activity or with the liquidation of the legal entity.