FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Here are the exploits and affairs of "Bankers Petroleum"...
Police raided the offices of Bankers Petroleum today, arresting the Chinese administrator and former director Leonidha Çobo. The action came after the company's maneuvers, which for years has avoided tax obligations and the implementation of the contract with the Albanian state.
Over two decades, Bankers' revenues from oil extraction have been around 4 billion euros. The company has paid zero taxes, as it manipulates and inflates expenses every year.
According to the concession agreement between the government and Bankers Petroleum, the company will exploit the Patos Marinza field without paying profit tax until it fully recovers the invested costs, or otherwise the so-called r-factor exceeds 1.
Once this value was reached, the company would then pay a 50 percent profit tax. So the profit from oil exploitation would be divided half and half with the Albanian state. Bankers himself had planned for the R>1 factor to be reached by the end of 2013 and consequently the company would start paying profit tax to the state, but this was postponed three times. However, after 2016, another 8 years passed. But the r factor never reached the value of 1, even though Bankers has earned billions from oil. This makes this one of the unique cases, where a ready oil field is exploited for a full 20 years by a private person, without paying a single penny in profit tax.
In 2011, Bankers fabricated $247 million in irregular expenses to avoid paying $60 million in taxes. A €100 million fine for fraud and manipulation, confirmed by the Supreme Court, was also suspended.
The dispute between the Albanian government and Bankers began in 2014, when the National Agency of Natural Resources, (AKBN), the institution representing Albania in the concession contract, conducted an audit of Bankers' balance sheet and the company's procurement procedures for 2011 and concluded that the vast majority of the company's expenses for that year were irregular.
In a report compiled by the National Agency of Natural Resources, it is stated that Bankers should pay the state budget $60 million in profit tax, as through fraudulent balance sheets it has declared inflated expenses and in violation of the contract it has with Albania. To avoid taxes and hide profits, Bankers had fabricated $247 million in expenses.
Based on the AKBN audit, the General Directorate of Taxes submitted a claim to Bankers for $60 million in unpaid taxes.
The fraud has been proven by several reports from the Supreme Audit Office. It has been proven by AKBN, Albpetrol, by several final court decisions, etc. Tax authorities blocked the accounts of the company, which never paid taxes, as it manipulated expenses and made irregular expenditures every year.
The Bankers company threatened Edi Rama and his government with the cessation of oil extraction and with arbitration proceedings. Instead of the company being seized and prosecuted everywhere in the USA, Canada and China for the extortion of oil worth several billion euros, fraud with serious consequences and environmental disasters, Bankers openly threatened Edi Rama.
The company warned that if the Albanian authorities did not unblock its accounts, it would continue to reduce oil production until it completely stopped its operations. The threat was like that of a thief after you caught him stealing from your house. But, after this threat, despite this statement, the government backed down, while Bankers continued the old adage: Extract oil from the Albanian subsoil and don't pay taxes.
But it seems that now the state has decided to act and the police, accompanied by Taxes, have raided the company's offices./ Pamphlet
Lini një Përgjigje