The Tax Violation Department of Sverdlovsk Region Municipal Internal Affairs Administration has come across a number of legal abuses in the course of a recent investigation carried out at Irbitskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod Ltd., the motorcycle producer of Irbit, Sverdlovsk Region.

‘The results of the investigation gave us some grounds for instituting legal proceedings against the company; it was thus charged with tax evasion (Clause 199 of Russian Federation Criminal Code, Part II) by the Investigative Department of Internal Affairs Administration of Irbit. Some evidence of guilt has already been discussed. Thus, it’s been proved that the company owed various types of budgets over 66 million RUR worth of taxes in April 2005. The tax inspectorates presented the plant with 21 million RUR worth of collection letters. Yet the company’s management, which was definitely aware of the debts, was not performing any settlement account operations throughout January to March 2005,’ the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Municipal Internal Affairs Administration Valeriy Gorelykh explained.

‘The plant’s main sales middleman at the time was Motoimpax Ltd. The management used this enterprise to transfer the money to the third party without any reference to the motorcycle maker itself, which meant a major violation of law since the company had actually been able to pay off its debts; the damage is estimated to come to over 15.5 million RUR,’ Mr Gorelykh said.

‘The plant has already paid everything off, but the criminal lawsuit will nevertheless be considered by the court of Irbit.’