European prosecutors have indicted five residents of Germany accused of orchestrating a sprawling €188 million ($217 million) value-added tax (VAT) fraud scheme involving electronic goods — one of the most audacious financial scams uncovered in recent years, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced Friday.
The defendants — three Danish citizens and two Turkish nationals — were indicted in Hamburg following a yearslong cross-border probe codenamed “Operation Goliath.” The sweeping investigation exposed a complex web of sham companies and phantom transactions designed to siphon millions in illegal VAT refunds across multiple European Union member states.
The Goliath Investigation: A Web of Vanishing Traders
According to the EPPO, the ringleaders — a Danish citizen and a Turkish citizen — masterminded a scheme that relied on “missing traders”, entities that disappeared before paying the taxes they owed, while other linked companies claimed fraudulent VAT reimbursements.
The operation spanned Germany, Denmark, and several other EU and non-EU jurisdictions, with shell companies trading in Apple AirPods and other consumer electronics as cover for the illicit transactions.
“The fraudulent chain was meticulously designed to vanish at critical moments, leaving behind paper trails that pointed nowhere,” investigators said in the EPPO statement.
The two identified leaders of the ring were convicted in April and are already serving prison terms in Germany — the Danish leader is serving 5 years and 9 months, while the Turkish leader received 5 years and 2 months.
