site.btaEUR 50 Mln VAT Fraud Suspects Nabbed in Germany, Bulgaria, Poland

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Munich, three suspects have been arrested and multiple searches were carried out in Germany, Bulgaria, and Poland this week in an ongoing investigation into a EUR 50 million VAT fraud scheme involving trade in electronic goods, the EPPO said in a press release on Thursday.

The enforcement actions were executed in cooperation with Germany's Tax Investigation Office, Bulgaria's National Investigation Service and National Police General Directorate, and Poland's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau.

According to the investigation, the suspects acted as strawmen for German missing trader and buffer companies involved in a cross-border VAT carousel fraud – a complex criminal scheme that takes advantage of EU rules on value-added-tax-exempt cross-border transactions in electronic devices between Member States.

The suspects are allegedly part of an organized crime group responsible for defrauding EUR 50 million in VAT. Two of the three individuals were released on the day of their arrest after cooperating with authorities and providing further information on the ringleaders, the EPPO said.

The ongoing investigation is directly connected to the EPPO investigation cluster Midas, a large-scale VAT fraud spanning 17 countries and involving an estimated damage of EUR 195 million.