A house in Portugal to donate to a little girl, 58 thousand euros deposited in an account, also in Portugal, in the name of one of her younger brothers, land purchased in Romania or even “walls” of designer clothes in their house in Vienna. It is this lifestyle that the police discovered during the investigation of this Viennese family that officially obtained only the RSA.
It all started with a road inspection in 2013. There were three men working in construction in the car, but one of them was in an irregular position. He will have to return to his native Romania. Then, in 2014, an inspection of the construction site revealed a hidden business: there were twelve employees from the same company. Finally, in January 2015, a man close to this family, who was behind bars at the time, requested a reduction in his sentence on the grounds that he had obtained a job in a construction company. However, the contract is fictitious. Investigations (telephone tapping, bank seizures, etc.) carried out on request for money laundering, tax evasion and undercover work, all by an organized gang, would make it possible to prove that one man was at the head of this gang. Fraudulent company.
“I benefited from everything in society.”
Between 2013 and 2015, he successively founded three construction companies. Only the first one announces his name. The others are in the name of loved ones. “I found the locations and managed the teams. But all the cash withdrawn was distributed to the workers,” explains the father of four, denying that he is the mastermind. “The fact that you make all the decisions for other companies makes you the actual boss,” says boss Deegan.
“I wasn’t the boss and they knew the risks! There’s nothing organized about it,” he says. “I, no, I was never the boss! “, responds one of the “straw” managers, who now has to pay 160 thousand euros to the tax authorities. “My family asked me so I did it! But the money wasn’t mine. We would go to the bank every Saturday to give it to him.” The money, according to the manager, was distributed to the workers, amounting to 5,000 euros per month, but was not announced.
Over the course of almost three years, these three companies, successively employing the same workers, achieved sales of more than one million euros. But none would be declared to the tax authorities, and no annual balance sheet would be prepared despite the “employment” of a “fairly broad-minded” retired accountant whose job it was to prepare payslips. In the end, the couple only declared an income of between 4 and 5,000 euros per year.
A mysterious return trip to Portugal
“Bottom line, you’ve taken advantage of everything in society. You send your kids to school, you go to the doctor, you take the roads, you even go so far as to get an RSA when it’s all funded by Social Security contributions, taxes, everything you never paid Despite 70 thousand euros of annual income,” analyzes the president. There remains a big mystery: the daytime return trip to Portugal made by the wife of this business manager, the day after the latter’s arrest. The accused, who has long denied this quick trip, confirms: “I went to see his sister, who was not feeling well.” The wiretaps indicate withdrawals of money, an egg that could have been immediately buried somewhere in Portugal.
In the end, the court dismissed the motives of the organized gang for all defendants. Business manager Christophe Lourenco was sentenced to two years in prison, including 14 months suspended. His wife received a 10-month suspended sentence. They are both banned from running a company for the next ten years, in addition to fines of 15,000 euros and confiscation of 153,000 euros. The complicit directors, Frédéric Lourenco and Stevens da Cunha, received 12 months of which 6 months were suspended. The fifth defendant was sentenced to 10 months in prison with a suspended sentence. The three were also banned from management for ten years.
