A source close to the operation explained to Lusa that preventive detention was not requested for these eight defendants, as the risks associated with these detainees could be contained with less serious coercive measures and without depriving people of their liberty.
Conversely, the other six accused remain in custody, with the alleged practices of criminal association, tax fraud and money laundering at risk.
The investigative judge’s decision on the coercive measures of the 14 defendants is scheduled to be read on Tuesday.
The investigation into the fraudulent activity that embodied Operation Admiral was coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and originated in Portugal, where it was responsible for tens of millions of euros in fraud.
The judicial police (PJ) carried out the police operation in the national territory, and about 250 elements from various departments, 35 elements from the Tax Authority, as well as a judicial judge, a European public prosecutor and Portuguese prosecutors seconded from Europe participated in it.
And the statement confirmed in a statement that “there is also a judicial seizure of about 50 vehicles, 47 properties and about 600 national bank accounts,” noting that the operation is centered in the Northern Directorate, which is owned by EPPO, in cooperation with the Tax Authority.
Criminal activities extend to 22 UNODC member countries as well as Hungary, Ireland, Sweden and Poland, along with third countries including Albania, China, Mauritius, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
EPPO information indicates a global VAT fraud of €2.2 billion and an operation that began in 14 member countries (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain). As part of this investigation, searches were also carried out in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden last October.
EPPO also said that the investigation at the European level lasted about a year and a half and would have revealed the “largest circular fraud in terms of VAT” in the European Union, allowing the creation of “links between the suspected company in Portugal and about 9,000” other legal entities, more than 600 normal person in different countries.
The criminal activity involved the successive formation of a complex chain of companies, mostly selling computers on internet platforms, which operate by doing the necessary work to “enrich themselves” with the VAT amounts received from selling these products to end customers, in a typical scheme of “lost trader scam inside Community (MTIC)”, which harms EU coffers, PJ explained.
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