ruth901
An entrepreneur from the region has been sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence by the Fulda district court. The public prosecutor's office had accused him of evading taxes totaling around 180,000 euros.
Fulda – According to the public prosecutor's office, there were four cases of tax evasion in 2016 and 2017. They accused the defendant of not submitting tax returns and of understating profits to the tax office or even reporting them as losses.
In court, the defendant claimed that he knew nothing about any of this. He said that in 2013 he was approached by an acquaintance of his stepfather – now deceased – who ran an accounting office at the time. He used to own a construction company, but it went bankrupt. “The result was that he was no longer allowed to register a business himself. So he looked for a straw man,” said the defendant. He agreed to do so. To the outside world he appeared as managing director, everything else was taken care of by his acquaintance – including the financial aspects.
Entrepreneur sentenced to suspended sentence for tax evasion
When asked by the judge, the defendant asserted that the acquaintance had always credibly explained to him that everything was happening in the right way. “I just trusted him. My stepfather also said he was OK.” Even when an audit by the tax office was imminent, the acquaintance continued to reassure him.
The examiner at the time now testified in court that her contact person was predominantly the defendant. It was clear early on that something was wrong: documents were missing and appointments for the examination were repeatedly postponed. The accusation hit the entrepreneur hard: he traveled abroad in the meantime and attempted suicide there.
Two of the defendant's former lawyers also testified. One confirmed that the now deceased acquaintance ran the business. When the allegations were made, the acquaintance admitted that he was responsible for everything, but refused to admit this in writing. “He writhed like an eel,” said the witness. The second lawyer also reported that the situation had been explained to him in such a way that it was not the defendant but the acquaintance who was responsible.
After presenting evidence, the public prosecutor stuck to the allegations and demanded a one-year suspended sentence. The defendant “conspired to deceive the rule of law and the tax authorities.” The entrepreneur “couldn't sit back and claim that he knew nothing about it. He had to know that there was fraud going on here.”
Public prosecutor's office: Defendant should have known that “shenanigans are going on here”
The defense, however, argued that the acquaintance had handled all the transactions. In addition, no one testified that the defendant acted intentionally. She demanded acquittal. And the defendant also asserted again: “I really didn’t know anything.”
However, the judge did not see an acquittal. “The trust was there. But there were indications at various times that should have aroused the defendant's suspicion.” The man must have seemed suspicious that his acquaintance was no longer allowed to register a business. The audit by the tax office was also an unmistakable warning signal. Through his actions, the defendant approved of the events.
The court sentenced the defendant to a suspended sentence of one year for three cases of tax evasion and one case of particularly serious tax evasion. The verdict is not yet final.
A few weeks earlier, the district court in Fulda had given the green light for Langgroupwhich started the restructuring of its subsidiaries under self-management.
