Hundreds with fake ID is revealed
Force Marit Nordsveen Bjorndal now receive a stream of false EU passports. FOTO: DAN PETTER NEEGAARD PHOTO: DAN PETTER Neegaard
Hundreds of Albanians living in Norway under false identities. Passport from EU countries make it easier to get a job in Norway, create businesses and provide access to credit.
In the police station in Grønland’s police superintendent Marit Nordsveen Bjorndal and study details of the Greek passport. One is real, but what? The ultraviolet light is attenuated to the genuine passport. Pass on the right reflects the light.
“No, this is not cotton paper. Pass on the right is fake,” says the police officer.
Gone with the tax crime
She has checked hundreds of passports from EU countries that shows the same pattern. Forgery is revealed when people are taken for criminal acts. Tax Crime Unit in the Tax Office has revealed 106 Albanians with a false passport, and is investigating another 200 cases. This year, banks have reported 80 cases of Albanians that have fake ID. These are people who get loans and credit cards. Overall it can be about well over 500 Albanians who live or have lived in Norway with false passports from EU countries.
The disclosure’s partly based on a risk analysis by police. The so-called “Albanian project” initiated by the Oslo Police District in 2008. Suddenly, you see a pattern. Striking number of Greek, Italian, Belgian and Bulgarian passports worked in companies run by Norwegian Albainians. Both banks and tax authorities could then add this as a basis for their investigations of false identities. All the hypotheses turned out to vote. . Number of police reported cases of Albanians with fake ID has risen sharply in recent years.
Billing Fraud
Aftenposten wrote before Easter about the exposure of 23 networks that are engaged in fictitious billing to cheat on taxes, VAT and payroll taxes. The fraud method is widely used in the construction industry. In the same case are Albanians use of fake European passports revealed. These are the people behind the companies or are employed by companies that are involved in the billing fraud.
“In a company, we checked had one of the ten false identity,” says director of Tax Crime, Jan-Egil Kristiansen.
Additional Story: Aftenposten
