Success in a court case concerning fraudulent obtaining of remuneration from our Client on the basis of forged VAT invoices

In a judgment of 13 October 2020, the Regional Court in Konin sentenced 7 persons to prison sentences for crimes of fraud and falsification of documentation to the detriment of the Law Firm’s Client – a large company from the logistics industry operating in the European market. Our Client was represented by attorney-at-law Monika Gruszczyńska and attorney-at-law Wojciech Wieruszewski. The Court established the value of the damage at nearly PLN 1 million and obliged the defendants to make it good. Among the defendants there were employees of the aggrieved company (our Client) who were responsible for contracting and accounting for the transport services of subcontractors and carriers acting jointly and in concert with them to whom these transport orders were awarded. The mode of operation of the perpetrators consisted in the fact that the carrier, in concert with an employee of the aggrieved company (our Client), issued a fictitious VAT invoice, which included remuneration for an unsolicited and not performed transport service.

Subsequently, the employees of the aggrieved company (our Client) responsible for verifying the orders issued and VAT invoices delivered confirmed with their signatures that the transport service had actually been performed and referred such VAT invoices for payment. Due to the cooperation between the employees of the aggrieved company (our Client) and the carriers, this practice was difficult to detect and prove.

The civil liability of persons convicted in criminal proceedings was established by the Regional Court in Konin, which, in its judgment of 11 February 2019, ordered the defendants, carriers and employees jointly and severally, to reimburse to our Client the fraudulent remuneration for fictitious shipments.

Attorney-at-law Monika Gruszczyńska also successfully represented the aggrieved company in labour law cases initiated as a result of employees’ appeals against disciplinary termination of employment.