VAT carousel

5 May 2015

Alerted by the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF-CFI) in May 2015, investigators of the Central Economic and Financial Crime Office (DJSOC/OCDEFO) settled an organised VAT fraud case in less than a year. The financial damage amounted to € 10,466,615.

As early as August 2014, the authors of the fraud residing in Ibiza and in Switzerland had developed a network of companies based in Spain, England and Belgium with bank accounts in Latvia. The perpetrators were allegedly looking for business volumes to access the Polish energy market. In fact, this criminal organisation was actually preparing a carousel fraud on the Belgian territory. With the help of a Swiss trading company with a depot in Antwerp, taxes of more than € 10,466,615 could be evaded between 25 September 2014 and 5 May 2015. Thanks to the efficient intervention of DJSOC, the organisation was dismantled and the value of the fraud was seized (€ 10,370,000!).