Galery

2

1

Today at lunch time the famous businessman and designer Lakis Gavalas faced a prosecutor with serious charges. Gavalas was arrested at 6 o'clock this morning for his debts to the Treasury.

He himself claims that he had requested his company "Αpostolos Gavalas & Co» KD to be protected under Article 99. According to information, in the coming days arrest warrants are expected to be issued for his sister (CEO) and for the Vice President of his company.

Debts to the state in the form of unpaid VAT reach nearly 1.48 million euros.

Gavalas was arrested while returning from the famous nightclub Diogenis Studio, located on "Syngrou" Avenue and the arrest warrant was issued by the economic prosecutor Grigoris Peponis and the head of the Economic Crimes Control Office Ioannis Diotis.

Naturally, the Greek police officers and the officers of the Economic Crimes Control Office had found the businessman earlier, but stayed in the nightclub, and waited for him to finish having fun, before arresting him.

According to some information together with him, also having fun, were businessman and retailer of defense systems, Thomas Liakounakos, and businesswoman Dezi Maniatopoulos, who works in the field of show business.

This is the second operation undertaken for debts to the state, organized not by the Economic Police but by the "Drugs and weapons" Department  part of the Economic Crimes Control Office, in cooperation with the Directorate for Organized Crime Control of the Greek police.

In a press release of the Central Police Department - reg. Attica reads as follows:

"Today (03. 12. 2011) early in the morning, arrested by the Directorate for Organized Crime Control - reg. Attica in collaboration with the Economic Crimes Control Office, was a 59-year-old businessman, a Greek citizen living in Athens, against whom charges have been filed for unpaid taxes to the state.

His debts amount to 1,480,000 euro.

Charges have been filed against the businessmen under Art. 25 of the law 1882/90 as amended by art. 3, para. 1 from the law 3943/11.

"Non-payment of debts to the state»

The detainee will face today a prosecutor from the District Court in Athens."

Business activities of Lakis Gavalas

Lakis Gavalas is the president and one of the three shareholders - along with Konstantinos Panousopulos and his sister, Nota Gavalas – of the company «Αpostolos Gavalas and Co» KD, established in 1980. Initially the company was situated in Maroussi, but after growing it was moved to Kallithea, then to Kifissia and finally to its own buildings in Paiania which cost 30 million euros and have a total area of ​​33,000 square meters.

"Apostolos Gavalas and Co» KD imported famous brands like Burberry DSquared2, D & G, Love Moschino, Guru, Moucher, Hale Bob, and others, and the company had its own business producing clothing with the name of LAK.

By 2009, the company reported a steady annual growth of around 15-20% annually and its turnover amounted to 74 million euro. In 2010, however, the first clouds hanging over the companies of the famous designer appeared and the management of the company reported that they expected a decrease of around 7%, they reduced the number of employees from 300 to 200 people and closed some unprofitable stores.

In 2011 the company faced some serious liquidity problems and tried to sell its property in Paiania for 40 million euro, but without success.

Lakis Gavalas requested ultimately protection under Art. 99, in a desperate attempt to save the finances of the company, protected from his creditors. Based on the balance sheet for the fiscal year 2009, the company had a turnover of 69.32 million euro against 68.6 million euro in 2008, while the net profit before tax was 1.84 million euro down from 4.4 million euro in 2008. The total taxes of the company amounted to 17.37 million euro and total debt of the company in 2009 reached 94.3 million euro.

Respectively, the financial results of "Lakis Gavalas - Interior» Ltd., which deals with import and marketing of furniture among other things show that for 2009 it has a turnover of 4.679 million euro and net profit before tax - 568,830 euro and losses of 3.22 million euro. The total debt of the company amounted to 5.8 million euro.

At the same time arrest warrants were issued against four businessmen from Fthiotida who have companies for unblocking drains, accused of continuous tax violations.

Arrest warrants were issued against the four of them by the economic prosecutor Grigoris Peponis. According to the information verifications were carried out in the companies by the Economic Crimes Control Office, and it was found that for a long time receipts and tax references for the services provided had not been issued.

In particular, it has been estimated that in 2011 the four companies have not issued a total of at least 4000 receipts. In order to warrant an arrest of a responsible person in a company it should have not issued at least 10 bills or receipts, whose total cost exceeds 500 euro. In these specific cases there were both violations.

Three of the businessmen appeared voluntarily before the authorities as soon as they were informed of the arrest warrants issued against them and faced a prosecutor, while for the fourth businessman the arrest warrant is still in effect.

According to the information available, the headquarters of three of the companies are in the region of Stilida and the headquarters of the fourth - in Kamena Vourla.

Another manager and representative of a technical company was arrested in Thessaloniki for non-payment of VAT amounting to 92,507 euros.