In the Risk Zone: Residents of Latvia May Be Held Accountable for Lats Received in 2011 0 47

We Know What You Did in 2011

The competence of the tax and customs police covers the area of serious and particularly serious criminal offenses, including tax evasion, non-declaration or false declaration of cash, legalization of proceeds from crime, trafficking in smuggled excise goods and narcotic substances.

According to statistics, up to 73 percent of cases referred for criminal prosecution involve serious and particularly serious crimes with a statute of limitations of 10 and 15 years (i.e., in 2026, actions from 2011 could theoretically be investigated). The remaining cases involve less serious crimes, with a statute of limitations of up to 5 years.

Today, the Cabinet of Ministers is approving the Rules for the Integrated Risk Information System, through which authorized users, according to the Operational Activities Law, will be able to access data "related to established and possible violations and/or criminal acts in the field of state revenues and customs affairs."

This will include information "obtained, among other things, from other information systems, personal observations, received risk information, operational activities or pre-trial investigations, as well as information obtained from other countries... declared/factual/legal address, addresses of the incident, sources of income – salary, benefits, income from economic activities, as well as income obtained from criminal activities, such as smuggling, drugs, etc."

"Risky," or "objects of risk," will include, among other things, bank accounts and vehicle registration numbers. The information system will be able to track how "a specific object is connected and what the nature of that connection is." There will be several levels of trustworthiness for the source of information: A – undeniable; B – mostly reliable; C – often unverified; X – cannot be established. Nevertheless, even the last category will be included in the system.

And Nationality – Why?

And another cherry on top – in point 3.12 of the Rules for the Integrated Risk Information System, there is... nationality! That is, the ethnic affiliation of the object of operational activity in independent, democratic Latvia, a member state of the European Union and NATO, is so important that it is included in the list, alongside mobile phone identification numbers and computer IP addresses, as well as indicating whether such a person is alive or has already passed away.

By the way, the deceased are also considered subjects. Until the storage period of information expires – 72 months.