All in

8. HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

On the way to the office, Felix opened Google on the phone and entered "Tax Police" and "Kaspar". Profiles of three Kaspars were publicly visible at the tax police web page. None of them were particularly notable on social networks, but at least two of the three could be found in different pictures on LinkedIn and Facebook. Then there is only one left - bingo!

Felix's fingers rushed to find the favourites section in his phone book and pressed on Reno's name: "It has started. I will fill you in with more details later, but please write down the name - Kaspar Gustavson from the Tax Police. Get me everything you can find on him. We have to understand who he is working for. And I'll text you the number of a BMW X6 – try to find something about it as well – he normally drives it. I'll be with you in 10 minutes."

"Jee ... What happened? Need a doctor?" when meeting a while later Reno could not hide his surprise about Felix's crushed looks.

"No, it doesn't matter. We need to talk about my business. It is no longer safe for me to hold it in my own hands, like it was so far. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Let me think. We could try to make it look like you sold it and at the same time no one except your family controls the business and its main assets. Have you heard of IKEA's tax structure?"

"No, shoot."

"Everything is complicated there, of course, but the part of the idea we need is about the untouchable foundations, like is possible elsewhere with trusts. Suppose you set up a charity foundation in the Netherlands, in which your Latvian company invests the rights to its trademark. Your Latvian company will pay a license fee to the Netherlands every year, which will reduce taxable income here, but will not be taxable in the Netherlands. You can also invest the shares of your company into the foundation and it will become the owner of the shares, but you will receive certificates of the foundation that will entitle you to dividends. Thus, both your long-cherished company and its most valuable property - the trademark will be safe. Others will not be able to get it unless they find the certificates that you need to hide in a safe place. The others will not even know who is behind the foundation - its owners are not revealed and its annual accounts are not public. The fund will be managed by professionals, according to the rules of the game strictly described by you. On the board of the foundation, but in the minority, usually would be either yourself or someone from your family."

"But then in Latvia I will still have to declare myself as the real beneficiary, so that everything is correct."

"Not quite, the limit to be declared is more than 25% of shares. This is not exceeded, if you have at least four persons in the foundation who will equally benefit - you and your wife and the children. However, in general, managers of the foundation are to be declared as beneficiaries, because formally you will no longer be in control of the foundation's decisions, apart from setting the foundation's operating rules upon its establishment. In the rules, by the way, the order of distribution of the inheritance can be determined as well, should something someday happen to anyone in your family."

"Then it seems that the bad boys would have to go to the Netherlands to do some damage to the company?"

"Well, you can continue running the company yourself, but according to the rules set by the new shareholder - the foundation. The company will have additional security against taking over its management, as such a decision will have to be taken by foundation managers in the Netherlands. You will have additional security against the illegal takeover of foundation certificates, as the takeover will not guarantee a control over the company, as the certificate-holder cannot influence decisions of the foundation managers. The official version could be - the company has been donated to a charity so that you can retire. So, come up with a charity that makes sense."

"Sounds good. Will the fight for a healthy lifestyle work?"

"Perfect."

"Ok, let's do as you suggested. Please try to start sorting the paperwork right away, because I don't have much time. I don't know what the next steps are for those guys. Looks like everything might not stop with beatings, unfortunately. Did you manage to find something about Gustavson and his car? "

"There was not enough time for it. Just managed to call a friend and found out that the car is in the name of some Clare Leo, but it's interesting that there is a power of attorney in the car registration case - and guess who made all the registrations?"

"Gustavson? Great. Then try to make a dossier on Clare as well. Somewhere he has to hide the money beaten out of the others. I'm sure I'm not the only victim."

"Of course, but do not expect such information to be publicly tossed on the Internet. In order to expose their schemes and trace the money, it is necessary to go and inform the police or to get closer to the sources of information by ourselves."

"Go to the police against the police? At least for the time being we cannot, because we do not yet know whom they are related to, who is covering them. If they are connected to some politicians and their cashiers, then the police might not only leave the case dormant, but start working against us. We need some evidence at the beginning. Then we can figure out what to do with it."

"It might be worthwhile to infiltrate in the tax administration somehow, but they already know that we are working together and will not allow it," Reno was thinking loud. "By the way, when I called my pal about the x6, I noticed the company - Auto Global Trade, from which this x6 was bought."

"What's so special about this company?"

"This is a company close to one of the larger car dealers, that recently appeared in one criminal case. It specialises on selling expensive little used cars. In that case a Lithuanian car dealer bought cars from Germany and resold them through an Estonian company to this Auto Global Trade. The latter resold used luxury cars to a shell company, which for a long time was trading them to buyers in Russia. Both the shell company and Auto Global Trade had directors from Belarus. Auto Global Trade grew quickly and in one fine day disappeared with all the VAT it received from that shell company and what it had to pay to the state budget. About two million unpaid to the state at once. I can bet that for this x6 VAT has also been cut through Lithuania."

"Then you should keep your eyes open whether this business hasgiven Gustavson only a cheaper car or some other benefits as well."