The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has carried out searches, arrests and seizures worth 23 million euros in the Czech republic, Romania and Slovakia.
Four people have been arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal organization and evading taxes, the office said.
The main suspects organized a so-called VAT scheme, which involved the use of platinum coins through the same companies.
Some of the companies – the so-called missing traders – did not fulfil their tax obligations, and allowed a German-based company to claim an undue VAT credit.
The estimated tax losses in Germany from these criminal activities is worth at least23 million euros.
The core criminal activity was located in Hamburg in north Germany. Money laundering was primarily organized in the Czech republic and Slovakia, with links in Romania.
The EPPO’s central office in Luxembourg coordinated the operation. European chief prosecutor, Laura Codruta Kövesi, a Romanian prosecutor, heads the office.
She recently stressed that fraud with public funds is “a serious threat to democracy”.
Bank accounts and assets were frozen in Slovakia and the Czech republic. Four suspects were arrested and they will be brought before a judge.
The operation was headed by a European-delegated prosecutor in Munich and executed by the German Tax Police in Chemnitz.
German Tax Police in Hamburg and Münich, the Slovak National Criminal Agency of the Presidium of the Police Corps, the Czech National Organized Crime Agency, and the EPPO office in Bucharest supported by Bihor’s and Salaj’s County Police Inspectorates carried out the probes.
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