{"id":440050,"date":"2025-11-14T15:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/11\/14\/frodi-carosello-procura-ue-indaga-su-iva-non-versata-allitalia-per-260-milioni\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T16:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:36:13","slug":"carousel-fraud-eu-prosecutor-investigates-260-million-in-unpaid-vat-to-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/11\/14\/carousel-fraud-eu-prosecutor-investigates-260-million-in-unpaid-vat-to-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Carousel fraud, EU prosecutor investigates 260 million in unpaid VAT to Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – There is a VAT evasion scheme<\/strong> on fuels<\/strong> at the heart of the investigation that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)<\/strong> is conducting in Italy, at the request of the Bologna and Naples offices. Today (14 November), the Neapolitan financial police carried out a series of preventive seizures<\/strong>, the latest act in an investigation that has lasted more than a year and a half. <\/p>\n

In total, the criminal activities of the network uncovered by the EPPO left a hole in Italy’s coffers<\/strong> of approximately \u20ac260 million, corresponding to the value-added tax not paid on a turnover of more than \u20ac1 billion<\/strong>, generated<\/span> through the illegal sale of fuels<\/strong> on the Italian market.<\/span> <\/p>\n

The technique used is one of the well-known “carousel frauds<\/strong>“, schemes based on fictitious companies and “ghost traders<\/strong>” who buy goods without VAT from intra-EU resellers (in this case based in Croatia <\/strong>and Slovenia<\/strong>) and then sell them at price increased by a VAT never paid<\/strong> to the Treasury, without fulfilling their tax obligations to the Italian tax authorities and distorting competition in the single European market. <\/p>\n

The measure, announced by the twelve-star prosecutor’s office, concerns a company linked to the head of the criminal network<\/strong>, a Campania businessman sentenced at first instance on 15 October to eight years’ imprisonment and a fine of \u20ac8,600, with the confiscation of assets of up to \u20ac73 million<\/strong> and a ban on entrepreneurial activity. <\/p>\n

The entire group\u201459 suspects and 13 companies<\/strong> in the crosshairs\u2014had previously been dismantled<\/strong> in March 2024, when precautionary measures were issued for eight people. Last April, the financial police had seized<\/strong><\/span> assets worth 20 million<\/strong>, including over 150 properties (including a tourist resort). <\/p>\n

Investigations revealed that the shell company (officially registered in the name of the entrepreneur’s wife) had a tax warehouse in Magenta<\/strong>, near Milan, used to facilitate so-called VAT fraud schemes. In addition, the organisation is suspected to have recycled more than 35 million in other illicit proceeds<\/strong>, using bank accounts of companies based in two other countries, Romania<\/strong> and Hungary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fake invoicing of over \u20ac1 billion, not a penny to the state coffers. EPPO dismantles an international criminal network active in the buying and selling of fuel, from Magenta to Naples<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":440046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25712],"tags":[28087,27087,27089,32258,32620,29573],"class_list":["post-440050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-news","tag-carburanti-en","tag-eppoand","tag-european-search-en","tag-frodi-carosello-en","tag-guardia-di-finanza","tag-iva-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440051,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440050\/revisions\/440051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}