(March 3, 2015)
On March 3, 2015, both the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie (Public Prosecution Service) as well as Europol issued press releases announcing that law enforcement and prosecution authorities from The Netherlands and Germany, supported by Europol and Eurojust, dismantled a gang responsible for defrauding Member States of approximately 150 million Euro in a joint action targeting VAT fraud. According to the press release issued by Europol nine individuals were arrested and 26 premises were searched. The press release as issued by the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie furthermore states that both in The Netherlands as well as abroad bank accounts and real estate have been seized.
Europol states that the size and scope of this coordinated action, initiated by the Prosecution Office for Serious Fraud and Environmental Crime in Zwolle and the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service in Almelo in the Netherlands, in close cooperation with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Augsburg and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office in Germany, were extraordinary. According to the Europol press release in total, 11 territories were involved, including nine Member States.
In the press release as issued by the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie it is stated that the carousel fraud that was tackled regarded the trading of different electronic devices like a.o. computer chips, mobile phones and tablets. According to the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie it is striking that the trading within this carousel changed at the moment that the regulations in The Netherlands became stricter. In 2012 the VAT rules for computer chips and mobile phones became stricter especially to prevent fraud with these products. The fraudsters avoided these new stricter VAT rules by changing the product traded (into products like a.o. tablets and storage devices).
According to the press release as issued by Europol, the damage to the state budget of Germany through this illegally evaded VAT and illegally reimbursed VAT is estimated to be in excess of 100 million Euro, while the Netherlands has suffered losses of at least 30 million Euro. In the Czech Republic and Poland, losses are estimated to be in excess of 10 million Euro each
According to the press releases, the criminal network targeted used so-called Alternative Banking Platforms across the globe to facilitate crime-related money transfers and associated money laundering, amounting to several hundred million Euros.
Click here to be forwarded to the press release as issued by Europol.
Click here to be forwarded to the press release as issued by the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie (in Dutch)
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