The “jewel” case

2 April 2015

Investigations for organised VAT fraud were initiated against two jewellery shops of central Brussels. One of them was specialised in selling luxury watches and the other one in the creation and sale of fine pieces of jewellery.

These watches and pieces of jewellery were sold VAT included to private customers. Once the sale completed, the jewellers sent a false invoice (exempt from VAT) to an embassy and thereby did not pay the VAT to the Treasury. The financial damage amounted to a total of € 6 million.

This allowed the jewellers to give a significant discount to their customers. The Federal Judicial Police arrested the two managers of one of these jewellery shops and seized various items for a total amount of € 6,500,000.