Businessman Risto Krmzov appeared at Wednesday’s hearing at the Skopje Criminal Court in a wheelchair. Although he complained of deteriorating health, the trial began, and judge Ilija Trpkov informed that the hearings will be held, but will be shorter due to the defendant’s health condition.
Strumica businessman Risto Krmzov and six other people, organized as a criminal association, and 15 legal entities, in the period from 2019 to 2024, damaged the state by EUR 94.3 million, of which 30 million euros were directly stolen from the state by paying VAT refunds for which they attached false invoices and contracts. Some of those false documents contained mutual uncertified real estate purchase and sale agreements, whereby a square meter of business space was sold for 20,000 euros, without a single denar passing through bank accounts, but the Public Revenue Office accepted this as real and paid them millions in VAT refunds.
