Amazon Italy, EUR 121 million seized for tax fraud

The charge is tax fraud. In an investigation by prosecutors Paolo Storari and Valentina Mondovì, the Nucleo di polizia economico finanziaria of the Gdf in Milan carried out an urgent preventive seizure of around EUR 121 million for tax fraud against the Italian branch of Amazon, the e-commerce giant. The investigation, like others by Prosecutor Storari, focuses on 'labour reservoirs', an alleged system through which large companies guarantee themselves 'highly competitive rates' on the market by 'contracting out' labour for their logistics services to cooperatives, consortia and 'filter' companies in an irregular manner, with 'labour exploitation' attached.

The alleged 'system' also described in this latest investigation, which led to the urgent seizure of 121 million, had already come to light in the cases, to name but a few, of the investigations into Dhl, Gls, Uber, Lidl, Brt, Geodis, Esselunga, Securitalia, Ups, Gs of the Carrefour group, and Gxo, with the last seizure of almost 84 million on 2 July. However, Sicuritalia points out that the company has never been investigated nor subject to any measure by the Judicial Authority: it was a member company of the Sicuritalia Group Service Consortium, so Sicuritalia only acted in order to facilitate a solution to the case that would protect the workers (not its own employees) involved. No Sicuritalia Group company or Servizi Fiduciari evaded tax regulations.

The seizure signed by the prosecutors against Amazon Italia, a group founded by Jeff Bezos with more than 500 billion in annual turnover, will also have to be validated by the gip office.

The investigations revealed photocopied stories of 'exploited' workers, forced to move as in a 'transhumance' from one company to another by which they were formally employed - 'filter' companies or consortia - and always left without social security and welfare contributions. An alleged 'scheme' carried out by means of false invoices and VAT evasion and which has seen at the centre of the various investigations, in addition to logistics, also porterage and private security services, all targeted by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Marcello Viola and with Assistant Prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano.

And the game may not be over. The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, in fact, in justifying the seizure of 121 million notes that it is a case of urgency 'given that the fraudulent mechanism is still in place, with very significant losses for the Treasury and situations of labour exploitation that continue, to the benefit of Amazon Italia Transport S.r.l.'. The Inland Revenue Agency "has in fact found that the relationships with suppliers considered "critical" continued in the year 2023, with the issuance of additional invoices to Amazon Transport S.r.l. for a total taxable amount of €. 135,166,486.87, which generated additional VAT for a total of € 29,727,261.42, for which the considerations referred to previous years apply". Moreover, the Public Prosecutor's Office points out that Amazon Transport S.r.l. has not "as of today adopted any control or any different management method aimed at interrupting the illicit effects of the fraudulent mechanism" contested, "which sees it directly involved in the pre-eminent role of principal and direct beneficiary both of the services rendered in its favour by the individual workers, and of the undue and considerable undue financial benefits obtained to the detriment of the Treasury, for a total value of €. 121,466,315.12, corresponding to the confiscable profit of the offence referred to in Article 2 of Legislative Decree 74/2000 charged in Chapter 1), in relation to the years between 2017 and 2022".