Poland Charges Ex-Deputy Finance Minister With Neglect of Duty

(Bloomberg) -- Polish prosecutors charged against a former deputy finance minister with neglect of duty in a tax-fraud case that resulted in 3 billion zloty ($792 million) losses for the state treasury.

Maciej G., a deputy finance minister from 2008 to 2013, faces up to 10 years in prison for negligence in his oversight over rules that allowed businesses to receive illegal returns of value-added tax, including steel products and mobile phones, the state prosecutors’ office said Tuesday. It didn’t disclose the full identity of the charged person, in line with Polish law.

Poland’s ruling Law & Justice has made closing VAT loopholes a key plank of its political agenda. It argues that a lax approach by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party, the main opposition force, allowed large-scale tax fraud and for people to siphon tens of billions of zloty from state coffers. Civic Platform has rejected the accusations.

The prosecutors’ office in the city of Bialystok, which brought charges against the former official, wasn’t available for comment. The suspect is the second former deputy finance minister that served under Tusk to face charges of neglect of duty that led to financial fraud, after another was charged in a case tied to gambling last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Piotr Bujnicki

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