On 12-13 June, 100 law enforcement officers from the Polish Asset Recovery Office and tax authorities, supported by a Europol expert, arrested 3 suspects and seized assets, such as cash, luxury motor vehicles and real estate. Overall, 34 searches were carried out in houses, accounting offices and various companies.
A strong collaboration among Polish and German asset recovery offices, supported by Europol's Criminal Assets Bureau played a significant role in identifying key players and gathering information about intra-community supply chain of luxury vehicles.
Between 2015 and 2016, the organised criminal group traded in oil and luxury cars to illegally acquire massive amounts of value added tax (VAT) from the Polish State Treasury. According to the latest figures, the VAT loss for the Polish authorities is estimated at approximately EUR 20 million. The seized criminal assets will be used for the recovery of damages.
The organised crime group used a person to set up a company and to trade in luxury vehicles. He was obliged to paid VAT and excise duty for purchase of 20 luxury cars in total, imported from Germany.
A mobile Europol office was deployed on the field in Wrocław, allowing for real time cross-checks of data on the action day and extraction of evidence from the seized assets.
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- Operation
- Press Release/News
- Press Release