It was Defendant 6, Yigal Fadlon, who acted to release the goods, presenting a power of attorney from Danidov Ltd., which was given to him by Defendant 1.
After the goods were released, and the reduced payment of import taxes, the goods were purchased by Piccolo-Line, from Sevilla Trading Ltd., against tax invoices, and with cash checks.
The prosecution claims that checks in an amount equal to the amount of taxes that were omitted were not presented for payment at all. In this way, the prosecution claims, the defendants committed fraud against the tax authorities, by presenting a false representation that the goods were purchased in Israel by the Piccolo Line company, only after they were released from customs, without the owners of this company being connected to the fraudulent acts against the tax authorities.
The prosecution further claims that Defendant 5, Roberto Wagman, is in fact behind Piccolo Line Ltd., even though the company is formally registered in the name of Defendant 6, Yigal Fadlon.
It was further claimed that defendant 5 "had the economic interest behind the fraudulent acts and was the main beneficiary of them." According to the prosecution, this defendant was involved in all the transaction proceedings, except at the stage of releasing the goods from customs, when the contact person with the customs brokers was defendant 6, Yigal Fadlon.
In order to prove its claim, the prosecution pointed out, inter alia, the fact that defendant 5 held in his office the stamps of OPCI and Sevilla, whereas according to this defendant, OPCI was directly connected to the import transactions, as well as the other companies involved.
We will therefore turn to an examination of the responsibility of each of the defendants, to the allegations directed against him in the eighth charge, which, as stated, focuses on the fraud of the tax authorities.
Defendant 1 admitted in his statement (P/321) that the supplier accounts of PLANAS are forged supplier accounts, when the prices appearing in them are significantly lower than the actual prices of the goods. He admitted that he had printed the empty supplier accounts at the offices of the Migdal company, with the details appearing in them being done by him.