Searches have been carried out in Luxembourg as part of a probe into a criminal gang which investigators believe has links to the largest ever VAT fraud scheme in Europe.
More than 600 law enforcement officers were involved in operations across 16 countries earlier this week, the EU’s fraud-fighting agency, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said in a press release on Thursday.
EPPO said it had uncovered a criminal group in the Baltics suspected of a complex VAT fraud involving electronic goods, which was the subject of the latest searches.
The syndicate had links with individuals and companies being probed under Investigation Admiral, EPPO said, referring to a VAT fraud scheme with damages currently estimated at just under €3 billion.
The syndicate at the centre of this week’s searches set up companies in 15 EU countries, posing as legitimate sellers of electronic devices, EPPO said. They sold over €1.48 billion worth of electronics through online marketplaces to customers across Europe.
While these customers paid VAT on their purchases, the companies never passed these taxes on to national authorities. Instead, they simply disappeared without settling their tax bills.
Meanwhile, other companies in the chain falsely claimed VAT reimbursements from national tax authorities, leading to an estimated loss of €297 million. The proceeds would then be moved to offshore accounts, EPPO said.
More than 400 companies are suspected of involvement, with the investigation also “indicating that certain Russian criminal networks may have been involved with this syndicate”, EPPO said.
The methods deployed by the syndicate are the same as used in the Admiral VAT fraud of 2022, the EPPO said.
The latest EPPO operation was mobilised by teams in Latvia’s capital Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and also spanned Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Spain.
Also read:EPPO seizes assets in Luxembourg in alleged €60m VAT fraud
During the probe, more than 350 searches were conducted, and 32 people were detained in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; three remain under arrest.
The coordinated efforts led to significant seizures, EPPO said, including vast quantities of documents and digital evidence.
Small electronic devices valued at more than €47.5 million were confiscated, alongside several luxury cars and cash totalling almost €127,000. National authorities also froze 62 bank accounts holding a total of over €5.5 million.
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Publish date : 2024-11-28 09:49:00
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