Brussels, 16/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Eurojust, the EU legal cooperation body, has just concluded a long investigation which has resulted in the dismantling of a large European VAT fraud network. Coordinated by Eurojust, the legal services of 18 EU member states, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, on Friday 9 March, launched a series of operations to halt the Mafia-like network which had siphoned off some €2.1 billion through “carousel” fraud. This kind of crime involves an artificial chain of sales of goods at the intra-Community level, and unjustified requests for VAT repayment. In this case, expensive electronic and computer equipment was bought by various companies in an EU member state, avoiding VAT since the equipment was declared as exported goods. The equipment then travelled through another member state, where it was resold, inclusive of VAT. The money defrauded was then laundered in a bank in the Dutch West Indies, and then transferred to Dubai. This type of crime costs several tens of billions of euro annually in the EU. (bc)