The European Commission carried out actions on January 14 in 8 European countries against organized crime of VAT frauds. The countries include Bulgaria, France, Czech Republic, Latvia, Spain, Lithuania, Germany, and Romania – 33 houses were searched and 26 people in total were questioned. Two people were arrested and over 100,000 euros and luxury cars and jewellery were also seized. A need for a new investigation into a suspected bank arose while the investigation order into the 8 EU countries was still on-going. The investigation revealed that suspects were arrested based on various VAT fraud – several purchases were made by companies – ghost-operated by French Citizens, and there was no record of VAT on the purchases made. Later on, cars were sold to France, and false VAT, resulting in a tax loss of 12 million euros, was made as a way to deceive the French Tax Authority. Other crimes committed by the arrested are documents forgery, money laundering, criminal activities, and violation of the EU’s Financial Law.
