No tax evasion charges over Finnair Catering wastage
No intentional wrongdoing found in investigation launched in 1997
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A criminal investigation over extensive product wastage at Finnair Catering, the catering organisation of the Finnish airline Finnair, is not leading to any prosecutions.
Helsinki District Prosecutor Kimmo Varjonen has decided not to prosecute three company employees for aggravated tax evasion, in spite of suspicions voiced by customs officials.
Varjonen says that none of the three cases involved evidence of deliberate wrongdoing that would justify prosecution for tax crime.
A large number of lower-level employees of Catering have also been interrogated in the matter, and no grounds for prosecution were found among them either.
Two men in leading positions in Finnair Catering, and one of their woman subordinates, were suspected of tax evasion worth two million euros in 1995 - 2000.
The suspicions were raised by the high level of outage in the duty free sales on international flights. Widespread pilferige was suspected.
Suspicions of tax evasion were raised, because customs officials believed that Finnair had failed to report taxable outage, and had therefore avoided paying large amounts of tax.
Already in late 1996 aviation customs officials noticed inexplicable disappearances of merchandise in the packaging department for in-flight sales.
A total of five tax audits were conducted at Finnair Catering from early 1995 to late July 2000.
The audits resulted in back taxes, which Finnair had to pay even though it appealed the decision to an administrative court.
Varjonen said that the result of the tax investigation was not the decisive factor in assessing the possible guilt of the suspects.
The main issues were whether or not the suspects deliberately gave false information, what kinds of responsibilities the suspects had in filling tax returns, and what was done to deal with the discrepancies.
The customs authorities' knowledge of the existing problem was another factor in the decision.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.8.2007 - TODAY |
 No tax evasion charges over Finnair Catering wastage |
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