EU Prosecutor seizes bank accounts in Dominican Republic and Peru

Santo Domingo.- The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has seized multiple bank accounts in the Dominican Republic and Peru as part of an ongoing investigation into a €25 million VAT fraud scheme linked to the trade of computer equipment. The operation, believed to be orchestrated by a criminal network with branches in Latin America and Europe, also involved a formal request for information from authorities in Uruguay.

As part of the latest phase, six bank accounts were seized in the Dominican Republic and four in Peru. This follows an earlier phase of the investigation in November 2023, when 24 individuals were arrested in Spain with the support of the National Police, Customs Department, and the National Fraud Investigation Office.

The fraud network allegedly operated through a series of interconnected companies in Spain, other EU countries, and Latin America. The organization is accused of exploiting EU VAT exemptions on cross-border transactions by using shell companies that vanished without paying taxes, while others in the network filed fraudulent VAT refund claims.