The prosecution office has presented charges to four people, including beauty sector entrepreneur Ieva Plaude-Rēlingere, over possible payment of envelope wages worth more than EUR 3 million, according to publicly reported information.
Prosecution office’s press-representative Ieva Šomina confirmed to the media, without mentioning any names, that on Monday, the 27th of March, the Tax and Customs Affairs Prosecution Office presented charges to four people.
Charges were presented in accordance with the section of the Criminal Law on payment of unaccounted pay and the section on tax avoidance.
According to the prosecutor, the accused breached wage payment regulations by paying unaccounted wages to employees between January 2017 and March 2019. The estimated amount paid this way is EUR 3 741 047.
As a result of such actions, the accused persons did not ensure the calculation and payment of taxes in accordance with regulatory enactments during the said period by providing false information in the reports of a joint Latvian-German company regarding mandatory state social insurance contributions from employees’ income, personal income tax and state business risk tax, the prosecution office explains.
According to the prosecution, the accused in an organised group had dodged the payment of taxes through those actions, causing the Latvian state damages worth EUR 2 983 691 in unpaid taxes.
Before it was submitted to the prosecution office, it was investigated by the Tax and Customs Police.
Information from Firmas.lv indicates that on the 9th February 2023 the Tax and Customs Police of the State Revenue Service put under arrest the property owned by Plaude-Rēlingere – shares in Kolonna Invest owned by Lawrence Asset Management.
Lawrence Asset Management, according to data from Firmas.lv, has shares in 10 companies. The arrest, however, is applied only on shares owned in Kolonna Invest.
In addition to this company, Plaude-Rēlingere is also the sole owner of Eva Rohlinger LLC and owner of 50% of shares in Lāzerklīnika LLC. No arrest is applied on shares in these companies.
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