He faces 26 million euros in fines and forfeitures

The Public Prosecutor requested a sentence of five years’ imprisonment suspended for three years, but above all a total of more than 26 million euros between forfeiture and the sum to be paid to the National Security Office before the Court of Appeal of Liège in v. Pedro R., businessman suspected of Large-scale social dumping operations between 2011 and 2018. He is suspected of evading social security fees in Belgium by setting up a criminal organization that was defrauded by sending workers-businesses from Portugal to Belgian construction sites. He must respond to non-declaration of Dimona, non-declaration of workers to the National Office of Social Security, non-payment of wages and social contributions, forgery and the use of forgery and money laundering. Waiting, ten people were tried.

On appeal, only Pedro R., who is suspected of being the leader of this association, remains on the bench. He was going to issue bogus forms to assign labor from Portugal to Belgium in order to pay wages and social codes at Portuguese rates, less than the Belgian scales. He established four Portuguese and two Belgian companies with the help of his relatives. The facts were discovered when Portuguese workers were examined on the construction sites of well-established Belgian companies to which the defendants’ companies provided labour. They cooperated remarkably in building the delta.

Profit 70 thousand euros per month!

According to the survey, 673 workers in Belgium were not declared. The companies had no activity in Portugal, and all sales came from construction sites in Belgium. Some workers have never worked in Portugal. In addition, the maximum posting period is 24 months and some workers have significantly exceeded this maximum. According to the auditor’s office, the illegitimate asset advantage was around 70,000 euros per month. The Labor Attorney General also indicated that this asset advantage was laundered by cash deposits and payments to Spanish accounts, as well as investments in Mozambique. Pending Pedro R was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment, suspended for 5 years and fined €600,000. The court also confiscated 15,978,000 euros to return them to the National Security Bureau.

On appeal, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested forfeiture of more than 7,120,000 euros which would correspond to money laundering, and a fine of 100,000 euros multiplied by the decimal places that were applicable in 2012. The Court demanded 26,470 euros and compensation measures 22 500 euros. The defense attorney raised what he believed were failures during the investigation. He asked the court to ask a preliminary question and declare the proceedings inadmissible because the first judge was going to issue a judgment when he did not yet have all the necessary documents submitted by the Portuguese tax authorities. The court will issue its decision at the end of May.