On Friday, 16 December, a German court convicted one of ten suspects for organising a VAT carousel fraud involving luxury cars. This scheme was investigated in 2021 by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Germany, and is estimated to have caused losses of at least €13 million.
The District Court of Ingolstadt (‘Landgericht Ingolstadt’) sentenced the first of ten suspects to 9 years in prison, for tax evasion and drug trafficking.
On 13 December 2019, the accused had already been sentenced to 7 years and 10 months of imprisonment for drug trafficking with weapons. The charges for tax evasion were committed prior to the sentence for drug trafficking. Therefore, the District Court of Ingolstadt sentenced the defendant to a combined sentence of 9 years for both accusations.
The court also ordered his placement in an addiction treatment facility, as he consumed cocaine, in accordance with Section 64 of the German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuches – StGB). In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of €973 825.84.
On 20 October 2021, during an operation carried out simultaneously in Germany, Italy and Bulgaria, the EPPO arrested 10 individuals suspected of organising a VAT carousel fraud scheme to re-sell cars multiple times across different EU countries. Three out of the ten suspects have links to the Italian mafia organisation 'Ndrangheta.
Thanks to this EPPO investigation, a complex drug trafficking case in Italy was also detected, and the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza – Nucleo PEF Milano) arrested an additional four suspects and seized 7kg of marijuana and hashish.
More information about this case is in our 20 October 2021 press release.