The Public Ministry, through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime, is carrying out proceedings in the investigation of seven importers of steel and derivative products, for the alleged commission of a crime against the economic order in the form of smuggling and customs fraud, as learned by Moisés Bartlett, legal representative and spokesperson for the complainant company.
The investigation carried out by Prosecutor Oriel Jaramillo is based on the complaint filed by Grupo Metales last November, against seven importers of steel and derivative products for the alleged loss of assets in the order of 2.4 million dollars.
As part of the legal actions, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office conducts investigations to verify the stability or tax information of the companies investigated before different entities.
In this sense, according to Bartlett, the investigative entity requested information from the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) to certify whether the companies denounced have paid the corresponding taxes and especially those related to export taxes, re-export of movement of steel merchandise or its derivative products, as of January 2020.
Likewise, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) information related to the commercial reason of the investigated companies, it also requested from the Public Registry the certificates of legal entity and authenticated copy of the complete history of these companies.
The complaint
The complainant company argues that it has suspicions, due to the import values presented by these companies, that, for certain tariff items, criminal acts are possibly being committed against the national treasury in the form of smuggling, customs fraud and tax fraud by the order of the 2.4 million dollars.
In this sense, according to information collected from the website of the National Customs Authority (ANA), between January 2017 and December 2019, 1.7 million dollars have not been paid in taxes, while between April 2020 and September of 2021 the State has stopped receiving 705,052 dollars, which makes a total of 2.4 million dollars.
Bartlett, legal representative and spokesperson for the complainant company, expressed that he trusts that the investigation will bear fruit and that the authorities will enforce the law.
