Building A Highway To Crime From The Middle East Into Europe
On the morning of June 17, 2013, a judge in the Ilfov County Courthouse just outside of Bucharest began trying the case of a Swedish citizen of Iranian origin.
The crime, according to prosecutors, was tax evasion by companies importing food to Romania. But there was a new wrinkle in the scheme – set up refugees to take the blame when the crimes were discovered.
Although the 47-year-old lives in Ukraine’s Odessa region, she is, according to company records, the administrator and shareholder of a Romanian vegetable trading company called Albutz Com Ltd. The company owes almost €1 million (US$ 1.29 million) to the Romanian state in unpaid taxes.