Ten vehicles. Scooters. Merchandise. All of it worth close to 74.7 million denars, and all of it - according to the criminal complaint filed by the Financial Police - gone from the company precisely during the period when the owner already knew bankruptcy was unavoidable. When the insolvency administrator arrived to inventory the estate from which creditors are supposed to be paid, those vehicles were not there. Neither was any paperwork explaining where they had gone.

The Financial Police Directorate has filed a criminal complaint with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Skopje against V.R., the manager and owner of a legal entity, and against the entity itself, on two counts under the Criminal Code - "tax evasion" under article 279 and "damaging or favouring creditors" under article 257.

The numbers that stay unpaid

The arithmetic is specific. Ten vehicles appropriated, worth 69,719,484 denars, scooters worth 545,000 denars, and merchandise worth 4,457,322 denars. None of it entered the bankruptcy estate. The result: creditor claims totalling 12,069,922 denars go entirely unsettled, of which 1,179,059 denars belong to the Public Revenue Office.

The creditors are companies that delivered something and waited to be paid. They are at the end of the queue, and in this case the queue ended before it reached them.

Eight years of cash without one invoice

The second part of the complaint covers a far longer stretch - from 2011 to 2019. According to the Financial Police, V.R. withdrew 53,872,587 denars in cash, booked as "material and travel expenses". No contracts. No invoices. No delivery notes. No receipts. Not a single document that would justify the economic basis of those payouts.

Almost 54 million denars left the till over eight years, and the accounts hold one line item for it and no evidence at all. Profit tax of 5,387,259 denars was never calculated, nor was personal income tax of 5,985,244 denars.

In total, by the Financial Police's own calculation, creditors and the state budget were shortchanged by 23,442,425 denars.

Who was watching for eight years?

This is a complaint, not a verdict - responsibility will be established by the prosecution and the court. But the numbers alone raise a question bigger than this one case. Cash payouts on that scale are not booked quietly. They pass through accounting, through annual statements, through tax returns that the Public Revenue Office looks at. For eight years.

The Financial Police worked out every last denar after the company had already collapsed. The question that remains is why the calculation arrives only when there is nothing left in the estate to share out. Oversight that shows up after the bankruptcy is accurate, thorough and late - and accuracy does not give the creditors their money back.