At today's press conference we have presented activities of the police in the field of economic criminal offences and corrupetion in 2009 compared to the previous periods. In investigating these criminal offences, the police has been very successful in the last period, and a number of anonymous complaints prove that citizens also cooperate in the fight against corruption.
Janko Goršek, Acting Director General of the Police, presented in his introduction some general data on the most prominent current trends in the field of economic crime.
According to unofficial data, the scope of the investigated economic crime that has been concluded with a criminal complaint increased by 12 % in the first five months of 2009, that is to 4,549 investigated criminal acts in 2009 (4,042 compared to the same period in 2008).
In the first five months of 2009, economic criminal offences caused a large material damage in the amount of 139.26 million euro, which is 185 % more than in 2008, when this loss was 49.74 million euro. The increase in material damage in the filed of economic crime points to that the police are focusing primarily on the investigation of heavier economic crimes which generate large economic damage or profit.
The share of economic crime in the whole crime structure has increased from 10.72% in 2008 to 11.92%; the share of material damage in the structure of the whole material damage has increased as well, namely from 32.83% in 2008 to 80.56% in the first five months of 2009.
On this occasion, Director of the Criminal Police Directorate, thanked the citizens for their trust and asked them again for cooperation: "We ask you that together with the police you become involved in the campaign Stop corruption, visit our websites and under the provision of anonymity report corruption crime to the law enforcement authorities."
Aleksander Jevšek, M.A. told that the police investigated 970 criminal offences of commercial fraud (720 in the first five months of 2008), even 215 criminal offences of abuse of authority or rights (89 in the first five months of 2008) and 220 criminal offences of tax evasion (184 in the first five months of 2008).
The police find that the scope of illegall acquired pecuniary advantage due to tax evasions has increased considerably, amounting in the first five months of this year to 84,201.73 million euro (in the comparable period last year it was 76,579.28 million euro). According to Jevšek, the said increase is above all due to a larger number of investigated criminal offences of tax evasion, committed through the so-called missing traders or non-operating companies.
He said that in the field of commiting criminal offences of tax evasion we notice organised crime associations specialised for commiting these criminal offences, therefore we can also in Slovenia speak about organised economic crime: "In this field, the perpetrators of criminal offences use a relatively liberal legal regulation of establishment of companies to their advantage. It is perhaps not necessary to emphasise separately what damage is caused to public finances by these acts, the consequences of which are felt by all citizens."
In addition, damage to creditors in the first five months of this year caused damage in the amount 7,189.62 million euro (6,637.37 in comparable period in the last year), and fraud caused damage in the amount of 7,661.16 million euro (4,151.59 in comparable period last year).
Other trends in economic crime are marked by economic and financial crisis. Thus, the criminal police are primarily involved in the investigation of criminal offences of abuse of authority, damage to creditors, and business and other fraud.
Anonymous complaints of corruption offences
Concerning the field of corruption investigation, Director of Criminal Police Directorate told that in the first five months the police noticed and investigated already 65 cases of the so-called pure corruption offences, and in addition to it, 32 cases of criminal offences with elements of corruption. Within this framework, the police have filed with the district state prosecutor criminal complaints for 24 pure corruption offences and 10 criminal offences with corruption elements.
In addition to it, we are also investigating 10 cases of the so-called pure corruption and 7 criminal offences with elements of corruption from 2008. These are cases which could not be concluded already in 2008 because of their complexity.
After establishing the anonymous e-report of corruption, the Criminal Police Directorate received from 9th April to 21st May 2009 to the anonymous e-mail address 101 anonymous corruption reports, and to the anonymous telephone number 080 -1200, seven anonymous corruption reports.
Finally, Director of Criminal Police Directorate Jevšek emphasised that 'the police means business' in the field of detecting economic crimes and corruption and that "also in the future we will not yield, even not by a millimetre". He also added that he is satisfied: "Our campaign conducted under the slogan Stop corruption, has 'gained ground even above expectations, which proves that we as citizens do not tolerate corruption!"
Anonymous telephone number 080 -1200
