PERSON ACCUSED OF THE CRIMINAL OFFENCE OF TAX EVASION ENTERS INTO A PLEA AGREEMENT ADMITTING GUILT

The accused Nevzat Berović (Nevzat Berovikj) has entered into a Plea Agreement admitting his guilt. The sentence of imprisonment and prohibition from engaging in the activities of import of textile goods for a term of five (5) years have been proposed.

The accused Nevzat Berović, born in 1977 in Skopje, has fully admitted his guilt for the commission of the criminal offence of Organized Crime, as referred to in Article 250, Paragraph 2, in conjunction with the criminal offence of Tax Evasion or Fraud, as referred to in Article 210, Paragraph 4, as read with Paragraphs 1 and 2, all in conjunction with Articles 31 and 54 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he has entered into a Plea Agreement with the Prosecutor from the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In this Plea Agreement, the Prosecutor’s Office proposes that the sentence of imprisonment for a term of one (1) year be imposed upon this accused person. Also, prohibition from engaging in the activities of import of textile goods for a term of five (5) years from the date of the finality of the Judgement has been proposed as a security measure in regard of this accused person, as well as the security measure of seizure of items, mobile phones included, used in the perpetration of the criminal offence in question.  

The accused persons are charged with the commission of a series of unlawful actions, as an organized group of perpetrators, during the import of the textile goods from Turkey in the period from 2015 to 2017, and these unlawful actions are related to making fictitious documentation in order to evade calculating and paying the VAT and using such fictitious documentation to unlawfully and groundlessly get tax refund from the Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereafter the Director of the company ’Alper Trade’ d.o.o. /Limited Liability Company/was putting the thus acquired money into regular  financial transactions and thereby he committed the criminal offence of Money Laundering.

With this Plea Agreement, the accused person has fully admitted his responsibility for the committed criminal offence and he has waived his right to a trial and right to appeal to the Judgment rendered against him by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of this Plea Agreement.

By virtue of signing this Plea Agreement, the accused person has taken upon himself an obligation to bear the costs arising from these criminal proceedings.

The proposed sentence is in accordance with the case law pertaining to the aforementioned criminal offences and it corresponds to the responsibility and the role that this accused person had in the commission of the said criminal offence.

This Plea Agreement has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.