Courts have accepted objections from defendant businessmen who are being judged by the Feira Court.
After more than two years of trial for around 130 defendants, including natural persons and companies in the cork sector accused of tax fraud crimes, in addition to three who answer for computer fraud crimes, the process may suffer a strong setback in the pretensions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), which, in the final allegations, asked for the condemnation of the defendants. At stake are more than 25 million euros.
The turnaround became possible after the administrative and tax courts upheld challenges to the way in which the suspected VAT assessment was carried out by the state. The objections were filed by the defendants that the MP considers to have been the main users and beneficiaries of the false billing scheme.