Europol and over 200 law enforcement officers have dismantled an organised crime group responsible for massive VAT fraud in several EU countries. The joint investigation team arrested 14 suspects and seized €4.8 million in cash, as well as luxury motor vehicles and real estate.

Europol announced that on the morning of 7 January, Hungarian law enforcement officers (from the West-Trans Danube Regional Criminal Directorate of National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NCTA) and the Public Prosecutors Office of Győr-Moson-Sopron County), together with Czech and Slovak investigators, supported by a Europol expert, arrested 14 suspects and seized €4.8 million in cash, as well as luxury motor vehicles and real estate. In June 2012, the European Commission presented measures to tackle fraud and evasion in the EU.

According to latest figures, the estimated VAT losses for Slovakian authorities are around €17.2 million, whilst Czech authorities have been affected to the tune of €2.7 million. The members of the criminal organisation belong to one family living in the Hungarian town of Győr. The organised criminal group had been trading scrap metal between Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, using 'missing traders' in the chain to illegally acquire massive amounts of value added tax (VAT) from several EU Member States authorities.

The perpetrators will face up to 16 years imprisonment for being members of a criminal organisation involved in large-scale VAT fraud. The criminal assets seized will go towards the recovery of damages in the countries involved.