(Luxembourg, 07/03/2025) – Two suspects were arrested yesterday, at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Turin, for their alleged involvement in a VAT carrousel scheme involving the sales of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. An order to freeze assets for the amount of €64.04 million was executed.
The Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Imperia analysed the invoices of eight Italian companies trading in the field of VoIP – a technology that allows users to make voice calls via the intranet. The companies allegedly bought VoIP credit from suppliers in several EU countries, including France, Latvia, and Poland, as well as in non-EU countries like Albania, Chile and the United Kingdom, and subsequently sold the same credits to other Italian companies.
However, there are sufficient grounds to believe that these companies, between 2017 and 2021, acted as ‘missing traders’ or shell companies established for the sole purpose of evading the payment of VAT. Evidence shows that the legal representatives of all companies were in fact straw men, acting on behalf of two of the suspects. The companies, lacking genuine economic activity, did not keep any accounting documents, nor did they have any operational or organisational structure. The companies issued invoices for non-existent transactions to justify the fictitious transfers, enabling genuinely productive businesses to artificially lower their tax burden and evade taxes. They also never submitted VAT tax returns, even though they had declared transactions for several millions of euros.
This system enabled the purchased services to be marketed at prices competitive with those of rival companies, undermining the legal economy and disrupting the proper functioning of the markets.
The Guardia di Finanza of Imperia, Naples, Bologna and Ferrara arrested two individuals yesterday, who have been placed under house arrest, while three others have been banned from exercising their professional activities for one year.
The estimated damage, at this point in the investigation, is €64.04 million euro, and a freezing order for this amount was issued by the investigative judge of Bologna. Three real estate properties were seized for a value of almost €900.000.
All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.