Lisbon, May 9, 2025 (Lusa) - Lisbon's Central Criminal Court on Friday sentenced the four main defendants in an intra-European Union value-added tax mega-fraud case investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) to prison terms of between five and eight years.

Six other people, including a former bank manager, were given suspended prison sentences of between three and four years, while an 11th defendant was acquitted of all offences.

The court found that the scheme was set up by a Portuguese and a Frenchman, aged respectively 52 and 35, and consisted of buying electronic products from suppliers in other EU countries and reselling them online, using carousels of companies created solely to allow the transactions to unduly benefit from VAT exemptions.

The events took place between 2016 and 2022 and caused losses of around €80 million, which the 10 defendants who were convicted will have to repay to the state.

At least part of the restitution of the amount will be ensured by assets that have already been seized or arrested, as part of the extended confiscation of assets.

The alleged Portuguese ringleader was sentenced to eight years in prison for one offence of qualified tax fraud, one of money laundering and one of active corruption in the private sector.

The French mastermind of the scheme, whose confession and repentance were valued by the judges, was sentenced to seven years in prison for one offence of qualified tax fraud, one offence of money laundering, one offence of active corruption in the private sector and two offences of document forgery.

The corruption offence is related to the handing over of thousands of euros to a bank employee at the time of the crimes, who, according to the court, ignored his duty to alert the authorities to the suspicious movement of millions of euros.

The four-year sentence handed down to the former bank manager for passive corruption in the private sector and money laundering was suspended because he was socially integrated and no longer practised his profession.

In addition to the two ringleaders, the official allegedly received money from a third person, punished with seven and a half years in prison for one offence of qualified tax fraud, one offence of money laundering and one offence of active corruption in the private sector.

The sentence of five years in prison was handed down to the partner of the only acquitted defendant. 

The remaining suspended sentences, all three years, were handed down to five people who helped launder the money obtained from the mega-fraud.

In all, 11 people and 15 companies were on trial. In addition to the offences for which they were convicted, they had all been accused by the EPPO of criminal association, an offence for which no one was found guilty on Friday.

In reading out the verdict, the presiding judge justified the acquittal by the fact that although it was proven in the trial that the defendants acted "in concert" it was not shown that this took the form of setting up a structure to commit the crimes.

Of the 15 companies on trial, one was cleared, another had the criminal proceedings against it struck down, 11 were sanctioned with dissolution for money laundering, and two were each obliged to pay a fine of €16,000 for qualified tax fraud.

As the court was leaving, the defence of the defendant sentenced to seven and a half years in prison announced that they would appeal the ruling to the Lisbon Court of Appeal.

Initially, his partner had also been charged by the EPPO, but the case was suspended at the pre-trial stage, subject to the fulfilment of certain obligations.

IB/ARO // ARO.

Lusa