The prosecutor reached a plea agreement with three participants in the international VAT fraud scheme, and the Economic Court approved this agreement, sentencing them to imprisonment, probation supervision, and substantial monetary fines, as well as ordering the recovery of 2.68 million euros, reports LETA citing the court.
According to the LETA agency, David Chervinski-Bush, Sandris Spurkis, and Valdis Spurkis are charged in the case.
One of them was sentenced to one year of imprisonment, a three-year ban on engaging in any entrepreneurial activity, three years of probation supervision, a fine of just over one million euros, and partial confiscation of property — watches, cash, and cryptocurrency were confiscated.
The second was assigned four years of probation supervision, a three-year ban on engaging in any entrepreneurial activity, and a fine of 100,640 euros.
The third was sentenced to three years of probation supervision, a two-year ban on entrepreneurial activity, and a fine of 50,320 euros.
The defendants partially compensated the damage caused to the tax administrations of other countries — just over one million euros, so the court ruled to jointly recover the remaining damage of 2.68 million euros from them.
The sentence can be appealed in the Riga District Court.
This criminal case was separated from the investigation called "Admiral 2.0," within which three individuals were held criminally liable for tax evasion that caused damage to the state budgets of France, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain in the amount of at least 5.04 million euros. Additionally, one individual was also held accountable for the legalization of criminally acquired funds amounting to 1.42 million euros. Since November 26, 2024, one of the defendants has been placed in custody.
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) reports that this is the first criminal trial in its practice in which several member states of the European Union participate in a criminal case being heard in a Latvian court as victims. In particular, the tax authorities of Austria, Germany, and France declared their interests as victims and participated in the court hearing in Latvia.
As previously reported, the Economic Court is also considering a case against the leader of the VAT fraud syndicate, Kaspars Kazanovskis, who was detained in Latvia as part of the international operation "Admiral 2.0." He is suspected of tax evasion and the legalization of criminally obtained funds on a large scale.
Kazanovskis is charged with tax evasion amounting to over 1.4 million euros and the legalization of these funds by concealing their origin and converting them into other assets.
The complex VAT fraud scheme was related to the trade in electronic equipment and caused damage to the budgets of Austria, France, Germany, and Latvia amounting to approximately 297 million euros.
According to information from the "Firmas.lv" database, Valdis Spurkis is the beneficiary of the companies SIA "ANTISTAR," SIA "Baltic Trade Plus," and SIA "Treiders LP."
EPPO is an independent prosecutor's office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and holding accountable for crimes committed to the detriment of the financial interests of the EU.
