MANS today invited the Tax Administration of Montenegro to engage in financial investigation against Svetozar Marovic on suspicion of illegally enrichment and sent the initiative to launch financial verification of his income and assets, in order to promptly discover the source of close to four million dollars that Marovic family hid on a secret Swiss account.
In the context of financial investigation on the basis of criminal charges that MANS already filed, the Supreme State Prosecutor should collect all information on the assets of the family Marovic, as well as taxes paid and in those terms Tax Administration has an indispensable role in the detection of possible illegal enrichment.
Close to four million dollars in her account wife of Svetozar Marovic, Djordjina was hiding from the Commission for the prevention of conflicts of interest, the public, as well as from the prosecution, and Tax Administration.
Money was usually hidden on the secret bank accounts abroad to disguise its origin, but also to avoid paying taxes to the country. Although in the case of Marovic’s secret millions a key issue of the origin of that money, and a suspicion that was obtained illegally, we believe that the Tax Administration must establish and tell to the public whether Marovic family evaded taxes on $ 3.8 million that were hidden in Switzerland.
The amount of tax that suppose to be paid on the hidden $ 3.8 million is that big that its evasion already is qualified as a criminal offense in Criminal Code of Montenegro. In fact, according to our tax legislation, the tax on profits of 3.8 million hidden in Switzerland amounts to more than $ 300,000. For the fraud of that amount CC predicts sentence of one to eight years in prison, as well as an additional penalty.
We emphasize that the official data on the assets and income of Marovic family in the past few years show that that kind of money Marovic family was not able to save from ordinary income, and that there is a reasonable suspicion of unlawful enrichment. In addition to this account and information on the ownership of real estate of the family Marovic also lead to the conclusion that Marovic unlawfully enriched himself, but also raise the question of tax payment on the property that he legally acquired.
The process of determining tax evasion on the accounts of clients of HSBC Bank in other countries is already in progress, and a tax which other countries on this
basis collected from those who hid the money in Switzerland, measured billions of euros.
The Tax Administration early last week announced that it would “definitely undertake activities to collect information necessary for determining a possible basis for the implementation of inspection and other activities within the authority of their bodies in the event of secret accounts in a Swiss bank HSBC, which were associated with Montenegro”.
We believe that the Tax Administration together with the prosecution in this case will play a crucial role in determining a potential tax fraud, and especially illicit enrichment of Svetozar Marovic and members of his family.
Therefore MANS submitted to the Tax Administration information on secret accounts of Marovic family and we expect that this institution in this example shows
whether is it able to implement a comprehensive, thorough and efficient verification in accordance with the law.
Because of the special importance of this case to the public interest, we expect that the SSP, Tax Administration and all institutions will act legally and efficiently, and in the shortest amount of time inform the public about the results of the investigation against Marovic based on a suspicion of illicit enrichment.
Vanja Calovic
Executive Director of MANS
