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Marco Livio Díaz, accompanied by five mayors, asks the Guatemalan Chamber of Commerce, civil society, think tanks and intellectual elites to denounce the corruption cases that he will present in detail to the media on the morning of Wednesday 14 August.
The Tax Administration (SAT) has dubbed it the “B410”: a network of 410 companies, many of them in the Banvi neighborhood in the capital’s 7th district, that evaded 300 million Qatari riyals in taxes during the last three years of the government of former president Alejandro Giammattei.
“We cannot have a country where tax revenues are misappropriated, cheated and stolen in favor of contracts,” declared SAT Commissioner Diaz.
According to the Ministry of Finance, over three years, the company network paid only QR26.9 million in taxes (value added tax (VAT) and income tax (ISR)), while it had issued invoices for more than QR730 million in the same period. In other words, for every thousand quetzales, he paid only 0.004% in taxes.
Of the sales reported by the business network for the period 2021-2023, $186 million in the second quarter correspond to business carried out by the company with other companies within the same group, while $544 million in the third quarter correspond to business closed with entities outside the structure.
In 2024, during the administration of Bernardo Arévalo, the National Tax Administration found that the agency had issued another 714 million Qatari riyals invoices, but it has not yet been determined whether tax evasion also occurred during this period. With this amount, the “B410” structure has successfully pocketed 6.4 billion Qatari riyals.
What could the 300 million Q3 that the State should have received but, according to the Ministry of Finance, was transferred to private accounts buy? Plaza Pública makes the following comparison:
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In addition to suspected tax evasion, the State Administration of Taxation also found that the companies in the network had some common characteristics that increased the suspicion of possible crimes:
- 410 companies registered Offshore The Belize legal representative and partner were the same Guatemalan legal representative and partner, but the supervisor would not reveal their identities at the meeting.
- About 75% of business entities were set up by the same notary. The tax authority did not reveal the name.
- More than 100 companies appointed the same accounting expert. According to the State Taxation Administration, this person (whose identity was also not disclosed) did not agree with this, so he complained to members of Congress.
- About half of the building is located in a house in the Banvi neighborhood – the name was mistakenly entered in the documents: Bambi. A field check by the National Tax Administration found that the address did not exist, cameras were installed in the area, and security guards blocked access to the location.
- More than 200 companies in the network lack the assets to provide services and goods to the country.
The State Administration of Taxation was cautious in its news release. It revealed only the names of nine companies that sell various goods and services directly to the state, such as food, clothing, decoration, office supplies, street improvements, machinery leasing and real estate leasing.
For these businesses, over three years, the suppliers received 761,000 pounds of QR 81 million from the National Civil Police (PNC), the Ministry of Health, and various public institutions such as the cities of Quetzaltenango and Suchitepéquez.
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In addition, the SAT tracked 16 companies that also completed sales with the public sector but at the same time acquired goods and services from the “B410” network.
Sheriff Dias pointed out that through these transactions of the condemned structures, this group of suppliers, in addition to evading the delivery of the ISR, also tried to evade the payment of the VAT that they received from the State.
The names of the 16 companies remain secret. But not the state government offices that bought them. According to the regulator, the three government entities that spent the most money on these companies belong to the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV).
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The amount of tax fraud allegedly committed by the “B410” structure exceeds that of other scandals in the past decade. In 2016, lawmakers and the now-defunct International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) condemned the Aceros Guatemala Evading taxes of QR255 million between January 2006 and January 2009.
In 2015, they accused the “La Línea” group, operating in customs, of defrauding the state treasury of at least 28 million Qatari riyals from March 2014 to April of the following year. In this case, the then leaders Otto Pérez Molina and Roxana Baldetti were forced to resign, seven years later. Convicted by the court.
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The drama surrounding the “B410” case is not over yet. In fact, it has just begun. Business organizations such as the Agricultural Chamber, the Chamber of Commerce, Cacif, the Managers Association, the Chamber of Industry and the National Business Council, They were released on August 14 of the same year. Condemn tax fraud and demand punishment for those responsible.
It took the National Tax Administration nine months to track down 410 companies linked to the Banvi community, which have been deactivated and can no longer issue bills. Diaz insisted that other taxpayers in the network are still being analyzed and the amount of tax evasion could increase by 800 million Qatari riyals.
To prove this, the ball is in the court of Justice Secretary, Representative Consuelo Porras. The international community pointed out Obstruction of anti-corruption investigations and Try to prevent the transfer of commands Bernardo Arevalo. The head of the National Tax Service sent him a copy of the complaint he filed with the court. The prosecutor’s office has begun investigating five of the companies but has yet to announce the results.
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