- EPPO targeted a €100 million VAT fraud linked to luxury car sales across Europe.
- Operation Vortex involved 80 searches in multiple countries with 500 law enforcement agents.
- Six arrests were made in Germany and Italy.
- Over €20 million in assets were seized, including bank accounts, properties, and luxury cars.
- Criminal groups used VAT carousel fraud exploiting EU cross-border transaction rules.
- Thousands of cars were sold using shell companies and forged documents to evade VAT.
- Fraudulent VAT reimbursements were claimed, leading to illicit profits.
- Reduced VAT was unlawfully applied under the margin taxation scheme.
- The fraud caused at least €100 million in losses to EU and national budgets.
- Investigations were supported by German and Italian tax and law enforcement agencies.
- Europol provided analytical assistance and coordination.
- All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Source: eppo.europa.eu
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
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