Last week, the Czech National Organized Crime Agency (NCOZ) participated in an international operation to intercept a tax fraud ring. This is the first time the Czech Republic has cooperated with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) on a cross-border operation with the participation of several EU countries. Credit: EPPO.
Czech Rep, Nov 9 (BD) – Last week, investigators from NCOZ’s Center for Organized Crime were involved in an international operation against tax fraud involving money laundering.
Coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Luxembourg, the law enforcement action involved four different countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania and Slovakia.
The offences were materially committed in Hamburg, Germany, where the ‘parent’ company, the so-called broker – requested an undue VAT credit. However, the laundering of the money took place in criminal rings in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with important connections in Romania.
In the Czech Republic, NCOZ investigators carried out searches on seven residential properties as well as other premises. One person was arrested in the Czech Republic on the basis of a European arrest warrant, among four arrests made in the operation altogether.
The total amount of the tax loss incurred by Germany by the fraud is estimated by investigators to be around 23 million euros, on the basis of the arrests that took place last week in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia.
The tracing of the criminal ring was made possible by the cooperation between multiple agencies in all four states involved, coordinated by the central office of the EPPO in Luxembourg and led by a European Delegated Prosecutor in Munich.
