Belgian Tax authorities participate in Tax scams of Diamond industry and settles for €150m tax back-payment.

WORLD NEWS TOMORROW – ANTWERP : The Antwerp diamond company Omega Diamonds NV, under tax investigation and the suspicion of concealing €3 billion from the country’s tax authorities as well as money-laundering, has agreed to transfer approximately €150 million to the Belgian authorities, reports DIB Online. “CASE CLOSED”

Although this amount would be the largest ever transferred to the Special Tax Inspection, according to Belgian news reports, the fact remains that the Belgian Tax authority has failed to pursue any prosecution – just don’t seems right nor correct to many Tax Payers. Why would the Belgian tax authorities accept an settle of €150m if they begun the investigation in the first place if they believed the were right ? Is this then not sending the message to criminals in Belgian “ If you are Big enough you can get away with anything “. Isn’t tax fraud of this magnitude a criminal offense and since when is a criminal excused of being prosecuted?

Was DIB  investigation purely on suspicion or were there real facts at play ?  What make this case even more concerning, is the fact that the Belgian tax authorities, were investigating the firm for €3 billion in tax evasion.

“Something does not feel quite right here folks.”

The Belgian government has set a target of raising €220 million this year in the fight against fraud, in a bid to boost its national budget, but then the question remains why was there no prosecution and who are they protecting. The average  Belgian is highly penalized if tax ovation has been done and could face jail or even loosing his home. This just don’t ad up ? What fight against fraud were accomplished by this settlement and hay,   isn’t fraud a criminal offense for prosecution  ?

Omega Diamonds was one of the primary importers of rough diamonds from Angola. Because of the fiscal and compliance environment, Omega principals Arye Laniado and Sylvan Goldberg decided to move their activities out of Antwerp. In 2007, the company’s Antwerp turnover amounted to €726 million, falling to €535 million the following year. The firm then moved away from Belgium. In 2009 – a difficult year for the industry – Omega Diamonds had a turnover of just €556,000.

The company declared no turnover and had debts to suppliers of €96 to €108 million. The investigation into the company’s affairs started around 2005/2006. Reports suggested that officials who investigated the case believe Omega did not declare considerable amounts of its profits and moved cash overseas.

World News asked leading expert Baron Baretzky to comment: He said that this case should have been investigated by law-enforcement and not the Tax Authorities as this send the wrong signals and urged the government to set an example before it too late.

It is believed to have laundered money via Dubai, Switzerland and Israel through a complex scheme of around two dozen firms and banks around the world managed by family of the two key suspects, principals Goldberg and Ehud Laniado.
Diamond firm settles for €150m tax back-payment.

This unresistingly shows us that Corruption is everywhere,  even the Belgian Tax department ant excused from it ! Viva Le Criminals

The Editor, Exclusive for World News Tomorrow.