The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating an alleged large-scale VAT fraud involving a network of short-lived companies in Ile-de-France.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office announced this Monday, June 29, that it had carried out a wave of searches in companies in the Paris region, as part of an investigation into an alleged “large-scale” VAT fraud. “The investigation concerns a possible “carousel” type VAT scam, a complex system which exploits EU rules relating to cross-border transactions between its member states,” specifies the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in a press release.
The searches, carried out last Thursday, allowed “the seizure of documents and digital evidence, as well as a luxury car and around 60,000 euros in cash”. Six people “suspected of having participated in the financial management of the companies under investigation and of having laundered the proceeds of fraud” were questioned by investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office (Onaf).
The investigation also concerns “money laundering and participation in a criminal association involving 26 French companies”, mainly in Ile-de-France. Those responsible for the fraud are suspected of having created a network of “ephemeral companies without real economic activity and designed to be difficult to detect”.
“These front companies would have used at least 80 bank and payment accounts to transfer funds totaling around 160 million euros over a period of less than two years,” specifies the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, to which the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) had expressed its doubts last August.
On VAT, the scam would have allowed its beneficiaries to avoid paying some 13 million euros. Operational since 2021, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg, is notably responsible for investigating cross-border VAT fraud. The investigation continues.
