SIPA arrests three persons for selling goods on the black market and double bookkeeping

(Patria) - Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) today carried out an operational action "Web" in the area of Sarajevo, Tuzla, Brčko and Lukavac, when they searched residential and business premises and movable property at eight locations. Three persons were deprived of their liberty and taken to SIPA premises for criminal processing and questioning as suspects, SIPA announced.

The suspected legal and natural persons are charged with having, over the past several years, with the aim of obtaining unlawful property gain, placed on the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina a large quantity of imported goods, which they sold in such a way that they formed a group of trusted persons who, according to the instructions of the suspects, used Facebook, OLX sales portals and web shops via the internet and thus sold the imported goods.

The goods for sale were located in the warehouses of the suspects, and most of the persons who posted the internet sales had no physical contact with the sold goods nor did they have registered activities.

The stored goods that were sold were paid for via giro accounts and as such were shown in the bookkeeping, and tax invoices and fiscal receipts with invoices were issued for them, while for goods sold via the internet and for cash, no fiscal receipts were issued to customers.

The suspects thus established a system of double bookkeeping, in such a way that the legal entities recorded all transactions at book values, while for their own needs they established other records in which they recorded actual sales. In this way, drastic differences were achieved between book and actual sales prices, as well as between declared and actual revenues.

During the search, approximately 24,800 convertible marks, 79,925 euros, six computers, one laptop, a larger quantity of business documentation and data extracted in digital form were discovered and temporarily seized.