Yesterday, 13 February 2023, a German court (Landgericht München II) convicted four out of ten suspects of organising a VAT carousel fraud scheme involving luxury cars. This follows an earlier conviction of one of the ten in 2022.
All four defendants were found guilty of VAT fraud. Three of them will have to serve prison sentences of between 2 years 3 months and 3 years, and the fourth received 1 year and 10 months of probation. Further to this, the court made a confiscation order of over €1 million.
The EPPO first reported about this investigation into the organised crime group behind the VAT carousel fraud in October 2021, and later in December 2022, when the first suspect was convicted. The remaining five suspects still need to stand trial in the coming months.