Four people suspected of VAT fraud worth 60 million euros arrested in France. Suspects, arrested in the West, allegedly set up VAT fraud attached to the export of goods from France to non-EU countries.
More than 12.5 million euros in assets were subject to criminal seizures of bank accounts and financial instruments in France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. “The suspects would have created false documents and used declarations in the name of companies with no real activity, set up with the sole aim of benefiting from VAT reimbursement on presumably fictitious transactions,” the European Public Prosecutor's Office says in a press release. The European prosecutor's office did not respond to a request for details on the legal fate of the four people arrested, and Customs did not wish to provide further details. The investigation is based on a report from the General Directorate of Customs and Indirect Rights (DGDDI) relating to suspicious transactions carried out by a company based in the west of France, it adds.