Trial of carbon tax 'fraud of the century' opens in Paris

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Fraudsters saw a golden opportunity

All are thought to have profited from a weakness in the European Union’s carbon trading scheme that enabled the protagonists to sift off millions from the French state.The scam – which threw together wealthy businessmen, a high-ranking police official and France’s seedy underworld – operated as follows: in 2005, the EU set carbon emission quotas for companies, in an effort to find a market-based mechanism to tackle climate change. Companies were allocated credits which they could then sell or buy according to their needs.

France, unlike other EU countries, slapped a sales tax (VAT) on these credits. Here, fraudsters saw a golden opportunity. They bought VAT-free credits abroad and then sold them on the French market with the added sales tax, which they did not pay back to the French government. This money was either reinvested into buying new quotas, placed in a network of dummy companies created for that purpose or invested in luxury goods and real estate.

'The CO2 wasn't work at all'

In France, a total of 12 networks involving mostly Franco-Israeli citizens were created. They operated out of Paris and Marseille among groups who had previous experience with VAT fraud using material goods such as clothes, telephones and computers. Buying credits off the internet proved more lucrative and simpler. “I worked hard running my scams. But with the CO2, it wasn’t work at all,” one protagonist told French daily Le Monde.


Trial of carbon tax 'fraud of the century' opens in Paris
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Al Gore should run for president of France.

"Carbon credits" even sounds like a blatant scam...and the progbots fell for it. :killingme
 
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