The Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS), jointly with the Customs Service, have completed the criminal prosecution of a company director and customs broker, who caused damages of more than six million lei to the state, when importing tobacco products from Denmark and Belgium in 2019 and 2020.

According to the PCCOCS, in addition to the three, aged 26, 29 and 36, law enforcement officers have also completed the prosecution of the company that commissioned the brokerage services under investigation.

“Specifically, the director of the company agreed with the brokers in question to indicate in the customs clearance documents that they were importing “tobacco and tobacco substitutes” into Moldova, whereas in reality, as a result of the samples taken by law enforcement officers and sent to the laboratory, it was established that the goods in fact constitute “fine-cut tobacco intended for rolling into cigarettes.” As they had cleared their goods through the green lane, the scheme was uncovered in spring this year after rechecking customs declarations,” a statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office said.

Law enforcement officials established that “the calculated import duty was thus illegally reduced by more than six million lei, which the accused importing company refused to pay to the state”.

According to the law, evasion of payment of import duties is punishable by a fine of up to 350,000 lei or imprisonment for up to 5 years, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or to carry out a certain activity for a period of 2 to 5 years, and the legal entity is punishable by a fine of up to 800,000 lei, deprivation of the right to carry out a certain activity or liquidation of the legal entity.

PCCOCS prosecutors are to send the criminal case to court for examination on the merits, during which time those concerned will be presumed innocent by law.