Repost: Russian officials arrested in crackdown
United Press International - June 09, 1998 16:50
ÿÿ MOSCOW, June 9 (UPI) - Several Russian government officials,
including the head of the state statistics service, have been arrested
on charges of assisting tax evasion schemes and selling confidential
company information stored in state data banks to competing businesses.
ÿÿ Officials who conducted the raid Monday night say they found over $1
million in cash at the home of Yuri Yurkov (''YOU-ree yoor-KAWF''), the
head of Goskomstat, the statistics service.
ÿÿ Investigators say they found jewels and $500,000 in cash at the homes
of several other men arrested in a widening crackdown on corrupt
officials.
ÿÿ Russian authorities claim the group of arrested officials, believed
to number as many as 20, are part of a large tax-evading scheme that has
been operating for several years.
ÿÿ The officials knowingly distorted state statistics, lowering the
trading figures of certain trading companies to allow them to evade
taxes.
ÿÿ The fraud is estimated to have cost Russia millions of dollars in
lost tax revenue.
ÿÿ The Russian government, which is suffering from a severe cash crunch,
has begun cracking down on tax dodgers. The state tax service has drawn
up a list of 1,000 of the richest citizens, who will be monitored by a
special branch with the aim of boosting tax collection and making an
example to the rest of the nation.
ÿÿ Only 4 million Russians filled tax forms this year out of a
population of almost 150 million. Government officials are warning it
will go as far as show trials of tax cheats to prove the clampdown is a
serious, long-term effort rather than a monthlong campaign to cover a
budget shortfall.
-----------
ÿÿ Copyright 1998 by United Press International.
ÿÿ All rights reserved.
-----------
ÿÿ
-eom- |
