According to data from the annual activity report of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), released today, the 26 investigations opened in 2023 represent an estimated loss to the community budget of 186.6 million euros.
Of the 43 active investigations, 15 concern VAT fraud and the resulting loss is estimated to be 848.5 million euros.
In 2023, Portugal obtained a court order to freeze assets worth 12.3 million euros.
The country has an indictment produced last year, within the scope of the so-called Operation Admiral, which accused 27 defendants — 12 people and 15 companies — for crimes of criminal association, corruption, tax fraud and money laundering and in which, for the acts carried out In Portugal alone, tax fraud of around 80 million euros is estimated through a chain of companies that evaded paying VAT, with “the use of false invoices and fraudulent tax declarations”, according to the EPPO in a statement, in December.
Portugal has not yet concluded any case and only the Operation Admiral process is in the trial phase.
In 2023 Portugal received 41 complaints and reports, mostly from national authorities.
Despite representing almost all of the estimated losses in active investigations, VAT fraud represents only 31% of crimes under investigation by national European prosecutors at EPPO, with money laundering representing 21% of crimes under investigation and fraud in obtaining of subsidies 13% of crimes.
Community funds for agriculture and rural development, for urban and regional development and the recovery and resilience program are the European funding programs with the most cases under investigation by national prosecutors.
EPPO currently has 22 member states (Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Spain, France, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Romania , Slovenia and Slovakia) and has Public Prosecutor José Ranito as the Portuguese European prosecutor.
The body, which functions as an independent and highly specialized Public Prosecutor’s Office, entered into activity on June 1, 2021 and has the power to investigate, initiate criminal proceedings, bring charges and sustain them in the investigation and trial against the perpetrators of criminal offenses. harmful to the Union’s financial interests (e.g. fraud, corruption or cross-border VAT fraud exceeding €10 million).
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