- Italian authorities, with support from EPPO, OLAF, and Europol, conducted searches, seizures, and arrested two people in a €19 million VAT fraud and smuggling case involving goods from China.
- The suspects allegedly abused Customs Procedure 42 and 45 to avoid paying VAT, using shell companies and a tax warehouse to simulate intra-EU sales while goods remained in Italy.
- Goods were released onto the Italian market at artificially low prices due to the VAT exemption, with fictitious invoices sent to EU corporations.
- Earlier searches in several EU countries found that companies involved lacked real business structures.
- All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in Italian courts.
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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