Five arrested: Evaded payment of over 5.5 million BAM in taxes

By order of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton, members of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), with the assistance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton (MUP KS), arrested five individuals: Adnan Mrkva, Amel Ćapin, Ermin Špilja, Adis Biberović, and Arif Malići. Searches were conducted at 14 locations, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

The individuals were arrested on grounds of reasonable suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of organized crime under Article 342, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), in conjunction with the criminal offense of tax evasion under Article 273, paragraph 3, in conjunction with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of FBiH, in conjunction with the criminal offense of falsifying or destroying business or commercial books or documents under Article 261 of the Criminal Code of FBiH, submitting a false tax return under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of FBiH, in conjunction with the criminal offense of special cases of falsifying documents under Article 374, paragraph 1, point c) of the Criminal Code of FBiH, and in conjunction with the criminal offense of money laundering under Article 272, paragraph 2, in conjunction with paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of FBiH.
Among other things, there is reasonable suspicion that these individuals evaded tax obligations totaling at least 5,532,287.99 BAM for the period from January 1, 2011, to October 12, 2015, thereby gaining unlawful property benefits and, according to the evidence available to the prosecution, damaging the budget of the Federation of BiH by that amount.
The operation is the result of several months of work by the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo with the State Investigation and Protection Agency and the Tax Administration of FBiH.

All individuals who were arrested will be handed over to prosecutors of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo for further proceedings after criminal-technical processing, who will make a decision regarding further actions after questioning the suspects.