The magistrate José Luis Calama, who has directed the investigations in the National High Court against the alleged network of tax fraud and money laundering led by the businessman of Chinese origin Gao Ping, uses two words to define the enormous group of those involved: “Criminal macro-organization”. In this way, and as the investigators have repeated from the beginning, the judge makes clear the great dimension of this international plot, which has been sent to the bench this week. A magnitude that is also evidenced in the bail imposed on the 102 defendants, which total more than 4,460 million euros.
As stated in the order to open the oral trial, issued last Wednesday, Calama grants 10 days to those indicated to deposit the millionaire amounts that have been imposed, with the aim of thus covering “the pecuniary responsibilities —fines and costs— that may be declared pertinent” in the future sentence. Bail of more than 60 million is decreed for 59 people. An amount that skyrockets in the case of the ringleaders. Thus, for Ping, 58 years old and undisputed leader of the plot, an amount of 103 million is established. The same is set for his wife, Linzhen Yang; and for Weizhen Yang, another of the members of his “management leadership”. And 111 million, the highest figure, for Jianjun Zhou, alias Alfredo, “in charge of coordinating money laundering operations in Spain.” For the porn actor Ignacio Jordá, Nacho Vidalalso involved, is 66 million.
The comparison of these data with other causes of enormous repercussion also demonstrates the enormous dimension of the alleged network woven by Ping, according to the respective records of the opening of the oral trial. For example, in the piece of Gurtel case Focused on tax evasion and money laundering, 26 people have been sent to the bench with total bail amounting to 199 million euros – Francisco Correa, mastermind of the corrupt plot, was imposed a 33 million deposit. The mouse case It ended with 16 accused people and bail for 209 million – for Rodrigo Rato, former Vice President of the Government, one of 65 million was set. and in the Pujol casewith 25 people on their way to the oral hearing, 7.9 million bails were decreed —7.5 million were for Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, son of former Catalan president Jordi Pujol—.
Accounting in b. Ping is a Chinese businessman who has lived in Spain since 1989 and who, for years, appeared in public as an art promoter and private collector. He went on to open the Madrid gallery Gao Magee in 2010 and, before his arrest in 2012, he himself used to highlight his “great interest in culture, art, publications, sports and other philanthropic matters”. A face that, in the opinion of the investigators, was nothing more than a cover.
The judge emphasizes that Ping was actually leading an international plot, “mainly made up of citizens from China”, who were engaged in the importation into Spain on a “large scale” -about a thousand containers a year- of bazaar items manufactured in the Asian country. An activity that was sustained by a tangle of “perfectly organized instrumental companies”, which kept two parallel accounts (“one official and another in b”) with the “sole and common purpose of avoiding the payment of the corresponding taxes to the Public Treasury Spanish”.
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Human mail. “This tax fraud was carried out through a double deception in the declaration of the merchandise before the customs authorities of our country. On the one hand, they declared a lower number of articles than the real number. And, on the other hand, they declared other types of products other than the truthful ones, taxed with lower taxation, ”Calama detailed in one of his resolutions. In this way, the subsequent sale of the products generated “immeasurable amounts in cash”, which they kept in their offices and which they ended up taking out of Spain through “intermediaries” with accounts in tax havens, or even through human couriers who hid the banknotes between clothes and suitcases.
“On the occasion of some searches in October 2012, an amount of eight million euros was intervened,” recalls the Prosecutor’s Office, which points out that this money was later reinvested in other illicit activities, such as “loans between members of the Chinese community to some extremely high interests, with the return guaranteed through intimidation.”
“Absolute obedience.” The Prosecutor’s Office underlines the importance of “blood ties and political kinship” within the organization. Ping was the “maximum leader”, but he also pulled his family, according to the Police, the judge and the public ministry, which asks for him a sentence of 47 years and three months in prison, and a fine of 77.52 million euros. The businessman not only “controlled and directed the various commercial companies”, at the head of which he presumably placed figureheads, but he “imposed his hierarchy” without hesitation, established “the general lines to follow”, “appointed all the people with relevant charges” and “demanded to be kept promptly informed.” He was “professed absolute obedience”, according to the instructor.
According to the summary, Ping’s wife was dedicated to tasks such as accounting and customer payments; and the businessman turned to his father and sister to “control the money upon his arrival in China.”
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