The date of the court hearing in the criminal case against those accused of VAT fraud has been announced, oxu.az reports. The preliminary hearing will be held on January 6 at the Baku Court of Grave Crimes under the chairmanship of Judge Leyla Askerova-Mamedova.
The defendants in the case include Rasim Aliyev, Rashad Bagirov, Aleksey Yunin, Rashad Tagiyev, Mushvig Latifov and Javid Ismayilzade. They were charged under Articles 177.3.1, 177.3.2, 177.4 (theft committed by an organized group causing major and especially major damage), 193-1.3.1, 193-1.3.2 (legalization of property obtained by criminal means on a large scale committed by an organized group), 202.2 (illegal dissemination of information constituting a commercial secret causing major damage) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The investigation established that in 2023-2024, members of the criminal group illegally took possession of information about various business entities and cash registers. Using this data, they opened pages on the ƏDV geri al (“VAT Refund”) portal in the names of different persons, where they secretly transferred a total of more than 1.12 million manats, embezzling these funds.
In order to conceal the true origin of the money obtained through criminal means, the group members laundered it by transferring it to the bank cards of other people who were not aware of the crime being committed. The damage from their actions is estimated to be particularly large.
The Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijan was recognized as the injured party in the criminal case.
