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(Luxembourg, 29 November 2024) – Five individuals were convicted by the Munich Regional Court (Landgericht München I) for organised VAT fraud this week, following a multimillion VAT fraud investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Munich (Germany). Their criminal activities, which involved trading Covid-19 tests, are estimated to have caused a VAT loss of around €14 million.
According to the investigation carried out by the Tax Investigation Office in Munich (Steuerfahndung München), the defendants organised a cross-border VAT carousel fraud – a complex criminal scheme that takes advantage of EU rules on cross-border transactions between its Member States, as these are exempt from value-added tax.
All five defendants had been arrested at an earlier stage of the investigation last year after searches in Germany, Italy and Spain. The Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Imperia had arrested one of them in Italy. The leader of the organisation was sentenced to six years of imprisonment, while the others received sentences of four years and three months, four years, and two were sentenced to two years and six months of imprisonment.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.