Spanish
Brussels.- The European Public Prosecutor's Office seized bank accounts in Dominican Republic and Peru as part of an investigation into a VAT fraud worth 25 million euros, the institution reported in a statement.
Furthermore, he requested information from the national authorities of Uruguay about the same case, allegedly orchestrated by a criminal organization with ramifications in Latin America and related to the trade of computer equipment.
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The prosecution sent cooperation requests to the three countries, and then seized six bank accounts in the Dominican Republic and four in Peru. The same institution recalled that, in a previous phase of this investigation, in November 2023, 24 people were arrested in Spain with the support of the National Police, the customs department, and the National Fraud Investigation Office. It was suspected that those investigated had created an organized network that operated through a web of companies located in Spain, other European Union countries, and Latin America. This structure allegedly channeled intra-Community acquisitions through a central company acting as the main distributor. The scheme took advantage of European regulations that exempt cross-border transactions from VAT, using a chain of shell companies that disappeared without fulfilling their tax obligations. Subsequently, other companies in the network allegedly requested undue VAT refunds from national tax authorities. The European Public Prosecutor's Office is an independent institution of the European Union responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and judging crimes against the EU's financial interests.
