A total of 21 suspects were involved, who pursued their criminal activities in Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
One of the two suspects living in Romania, who was responsible for the administrative organisation of the criminal activities, was arrested on Wednesday. At the same time, Europe-wide searches were carried out, and digital data, e-mails, chats, and documents were seized.
The core of the organised group’s criminal activities was in Berlin and Leipzig, where the main suspects organised a VAT carousel fraud. The 21 suspects created fake invoices for Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services and then claimed the VAT from the tax authorities. In doing so, they caused the German treasury estimated tax losses of 80 million euros.
Sources:
