Multipoker.com alleged of using BVI offices to hide revenues from Sweden’s tax authorities
Sweden’s tax authority (Skatterverket) claims that online poker site Multipoker.com owes SEK40 million (about USD$6.38 million) in unpaid taxes; the reason is that, according to Skatteverket, Multipoker’s offices in the British Virgin Islands were only a front, but all of the gaming operations were unlawfully conducted in Sweden.
This was found in the course of ongoing investigation into online gaming launched by Skatteverket together with the National Economic Crimes Bureau and the Gaming Board. The investigators have already asked several major companies having interests in the Scandinavian country to provide information, and one of them was Multipoker.com. Being one of the first online poker webistes in Sweden, it had originally been owned and operated by British Virgin Islands-registered EPR Investments. In November 2005, the BVI company sold it for US$14.5 million to PartyGaming Plc, the largest London-listed online gaming company; two years later, in December 2007, this Gibraltar company confirmed the purchase of other gambling sites from BVI-based Empire Online Ltd.
The founders and main shareholders of EPR Investments (BVI) were arrested in May 2007, and a police investigation was launched into allegations of serious tax crimes. Knut Edhborg, tax auditor at Skatteverket, said that according to their investigations all of the business of BVI registered EPR Investments was operated from Sweden, and both the management and board of directors were situated there and not in BVI. Meanwhile, no revenues generated by Multipoker.com prior to its acquisition by PartyGaming were declared in Sweden.
Also, the authorities allege that the US$14.5 million paid for the business ended up with the owners of EPR Investments via bank accounts in Switzerland, again without being declared to the Swedish tax authorities.
Throughout the year, Sweden has been pressured by the EC to end their gambling monopoly. The Swedish government declined further expansion of Svenska Spel gaming monopoly, though has not ended it yet.