On the bottles of wine there were the IGT (typical geographical indication) and DOCG (controlled and guaranteed designation of origin) brands for Vermentino di Sardegna and Gallura, Cannonau, Monica di Sardegna and Isola dei Nuraghi. But the grapes would not have been Sardinian. This is the hypothesis of the Guardia di Finanza of the provincial command of Sassari, who carried out a huge seizure in the Società Agricola Zanatta company in Olbia . The Fiamme Gialle worked on behalf of the Tempio Prosecutor's Office with the officials of the department of the Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and the Repression of Fraud in Agri-Food Products (Icqrf) and the Carabinieri of Sassari.
The scope of action is to combat food adulteration. The investigations, according to a note issued by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Sassari, made it possible to find, during the tax audit of the company, «the use of artificial transport documents and the accounting of invoices issued by subjects compliant economic figures certifying supplies of large quantities of so-called "paper grapes and wine" which never actually occurred". For this reason, the value added tax subtracted from taxation was contested.
The investigators' activity also made it possible to ascertain the production and sale of prestigious wines with typical geographical indications and controlled and guaranteed designations of origin «through the accounting creation of batches of wine physically replaced by products coming from areas of the national territory foreign to their respective disciplinary". This element was detected by the Carabinieri of the Bonorva Company following the checks carried out on the effectiveness of the transport operations.
The wine that was allegedly counterfeit was not only sold to end customers, but also in bulk to numerous Sardinian companies in the sector: the result, if the prosecution's theory were to be confirmed, would be the irremediable compromise of "products that should have been be considered genuine, with potentially exponential alteration effects in production terms".
The financiers calculated an unjustified profit made by the inspected company alone amounting to almost 3 million euros in three years.
The two directors of the company were reported to the Judicial Authority for fraudulent declarations through the use of invoices for non-existent operations, aggravated commercial fraud and counterfeiting of geographical indications or designations of origin of agri-food products, together with the 8 owners of the supplying cellars for issuing invoices for non-existent operations.
The preventive seizure of the sums of money resulting from the fraud and undue tax savings was also ordered and carried out, as well as the wine still in stock, the result of mixing with wines coming from other regions of the South: these are approximately 5000 hectoliters of wine with a commercial value estimated at over 1.5 million euros.
(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)