The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Customs Crimes of Callao reported on Sunday the discovery of $423,000 (426,000 euros) in the home of the head of the Peruvian Customs Import Area, Lizardo Perez Coyla.
In addition, agents have seized 9 million soles (about 2,300 euros) and 534,000 dollars at the headquarters of the company América Import E.I.R.L., owned by businesswoman Yolanda Huamán Aquipucho in a search related to the same case, reports Peruvian radio station RPP. Last Friday, 4 million soles were found in the businesswoman’s house.
The Prosecutor’s Office has informed that all the seized money has been «interned» in the Banco de la Nación, where it will remain for the duration of the fiscal investigations «against five customs officials of the National Superintendence of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT), 8 customs agency dispatchers and 19 importers (businessmen)», members of an alleged criminal network dedicated to tax fraud.
Since early Friday morning, 26 people have been arrested in Lima and other regions of Peru, including SUNAT officials and businessmen, and 32 properties have been searched.
«What has been identified within this alleged criminal organization, network type, is that there are 32 members, including 5 customs officials, 8 commission agents or customs agency dispatchers and 19 importers, including 5 of Chinese nationality and 14 of Peruvian nationality. Those who have been arrested are the 5 customs officials», explained the provincial prosecutor of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Customs and Intellectual Property Crimes of Callao, Lucía Lizana Segama, in declarations to RPP.
The criminal network used two methods to commit the illicit acts: «to avoid paying taxes, that is to say, to evade the tax authorities under a list of importers who were exempted from paying taxes, and that some companies had the value to be paid adjusted according to the agreement they made with a monetary arrangement in between».
«What they are charged with is the crime of appropriation of customs revenues with aggravating circumstances. The criminal act that we are investigating is basically the exoneration of the payment of taxes to a certain list of companies and adjusting their value to undervalue their merchandise, basically textiles», he said, with the aggravating circumstance of the participation of a criminal organization and the participation of customs officials.
