A Maltese business selling company registration services has been defrauding Danish entrepreneurs of thousands of euro, an investigative Danish TV programme has claimed.
In a 25-minute exposé aired earlier this month on Denmark’s national broadcaster, Danish TV programme Kontant spoke with several individuals who said they had been duped by representatives of Maltese company Panlegis.
The three representatives – David Juul Gallorini, Christian Johansen and Bruno Pagliuca – were among those charged in one of Denmark’s biggest-ever advertising scams in 2010. The programme states they were convicted, appealed the ruling, and subsequently moved to Malta.
According to the programme’s testimonies, the Panlegis salesmen cold-called start-ups and offered them the opportunity of opening a limited liability company abroad, with a branch in Denmark. They promised that doing so would result in massive savings on company tax, the TV programme alleged. Tax experts and state authorities both told Kontant that saving tax this way was illegal.
In a number of cases, the salesmen allegedly obtained entrepreneurs’ credit card details over the phone and promised to open a company in England on their behalf for €750. But in other cases, according to the programme, it appeared Panlegis already had the individuals’ personal details and simply called to confirm them before withdrawing €750 without their consent.
A number of websites are warning Danish people about the scam, with warnings coming also from the local tax authorities. The programme states that a number of Danish banks have started offering refunds to some of those affected.
Panlegis has denied any wrongdoing, with CEO Brian Micallef telling the Kontant crew that the company only offered the opportunity to set up a limited liability company abroad, with no promise of tax savings. He also told the programme that the three individuals involved had stopped working for Panlegis last December.
This conflicts with information garnered in a telephone call the programme made to Panlegis offices earlier that week when a Panlegis representative told the Danish reporter that “David Juul” would be “back at the office on Friday”.
The company insists the allegations are baseless. Mr Micallef declined to answer questions put to him by The Times concerning the programme’s allegations or Panlegis’s employment of the three convicted salesmen, and instead referred questions to Panlegis’ legal team. The company’s lawyers said the company had “been the victim of a series of repeated frivolous and false allegations”.