Officers of the Northern Investigation Directorate of the National Investigation Inspectorate (INI) together with police officers of the Balti Police Inspectorate, under the direction of the Balti Prosecutor’s Office, have documented the illegal activity of a group of persons suspected of organising fraudulent tax evasion and money laundering schemes on a particularly large scale.                  

As a result of the searches carried out by police officers, 22 153 empty bottles with a volume of 0.5-0.7 litres, with counterfeit labels allegedly belonging to well-known alcoholic beverage companies in the country, 765 litres of golden-yellow alcohol and 125 litres of colourless alcohol, including 395 litres of ethyl alcohol, as well as 1 500 counterfeit excise stamps were found and seized. At the same time, more than 500,000 lei in cash was recovered.

Four persons suspected of involvement in the offences were detained for 72 hours and five others are being investigated.                   

According to the prosecution materials, from the beginning of 2020 until now, members of a criminal group in the north of the country, pursuing the purpose of evading taxes and obtaining “cash” money, created a criminal scheme of counterfeiting and selling alcoholic products.                    

During the criminal prosecution it was established that each member of the group had a pre-established role such as: purchasing ethyl alcohol without documents of origin, preparing packaging and containers, preparing counterfeit alcoholic beverages and selling them both to individuals and to economic agents throughout the country.               

According to the criminal law, the person guilty of tax evasion is liable to imprisonment for up to 5 years, and for the offence provided for in Article 243 of the Criminal Code, money laundering in particularly large proportions, he is liable to imprisonment for 5 to 10 years.