The revelation that a Greek customs clearance was arrested, possessed by European prosecutor Laura Kovesi during her visit to Athens. The case is linked to great fraud in VAT and illegal circuit imports of products by China.
In her statements to the Financial Times, Kovesi said that confiscated amounts are profits from criminal activities, with shipment of mass -scale goods in Europe, without paying the planned duties and taxes. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has charged two customs officials and four customs clearances for participating in an organized product import plan – such as electric bicycles – from China, in order to avoid paying customs charges.
As part of operations in June in the port of Piraeus, the Greek authorities seized 2.7m euros in cash from the customs office, and an additional 300,000 euros in his home. According to the FT, the notes were mainly of 100 euros and had a total weight of more than 25 kg.
Eppo announced that the total value of the confiscated cash is € 4.78 million, while an additional 5.4m euros were committed to bank accounts in Greece.
In the same investigation, more than 2,400 containers of a total estimated EUR 250 million were also seized.
“This could not happen without corruption. There have been public officials who helped them, “Kovesi said, noting that this is the largest seizure of containers ever held within the European Union. She added: “We are targeting organized criminal networks that bring in mass goods from China, avoiding customs duties and committing extensive VAT fraud.”