GREEN fraud

IT'S nice to know Europe's professional fraudsters are going green. Carousel VAT fraud is a lucrative sector for professional con-artists. In the simple version of the fraud a string of companies is set up to import and export goods in and out of different EU states. Exploiting the varying VAT rates between member states, the fraudsters use at least one firm in the chain to reclaim VAT on the 'transaction' which later disappears when tax officials start asking questions. It is also known as missing trader fraud. Small, but highly valuable, cargoes of items such as computer chips or gold bars are shipped around the chain of companies to create a series of transactions - hence the name Carousel fraud.

Now thanks, to the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme the fraudsters don't even need that cargo. The scheme was set up in 2008 to combat climate change by allowing firms to trade permitted emissions. But Europol believe that as much as 90 per cent of the market, worth €5 billion, is caused by fraudulent activity. Ouch.

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