Six men jailed following ¿300million tax evasion on carbon permits

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 6:29 PM on 21st December 2011

Three Britons and three other men have been sent to jail for evading tax on EU carbon permits.

A judge in Germany said the defendants’ €300million (£250million) conspiracy had undermined efforts to tackle climate change and ‘brought the scheme into disrepute’.

They have been handed jail terms of up to eight years each for their role in the attempted VAT scam between August 2009 and April 2010.

Pollution: A £250billion tax-evasion scheme has undermined the EU's efforts to tackle global warming

Pollution: A £250billion tax-evasion scheme has undermined the EU’s efforts to tackle global warming

Around that time, the EU’s carbon market was hit by so-called carousel trade in which buyers imported emissions permits without paying VAT and then sold them to each other, adding tax to the price and pocketing the difference.

‘The convicted were fraudulently involved in tax-evading trades,’ said judge Martin Bach.

‘They have brought the carbon market trading scheme into disrepute.’

The EU Emissions Trading System, designed to be a key weapon in the fight against global warming, caps the emissions of factories and power plants, forcing them to buy more carbon permits if needed while also allowing them to sell surpluses.

The way Germany’s flagship lender, Deutsche Bank, traded permits with some of the jailed men left the door open for tax evasion, according to the judge.

Deutsche Bank said today that independent legal experts had so far found no wrongdoing on the part of the bank’s employees.

Deutsche Bank: The company traded with some of the men jailed today

Deutsche Bank: The company traded with some of the men jailed today

The Frankfurt court verdict marks the first convictions after an EU-wide investigation into the fraud.

European police agency Europol estimates widespread VAT fraud cost EU member states around €5billion (£4billion) in lost tax revenue.

The judge said Germany became the target of fraudsters in late 2009 after Britain, France, and the Netherlands.

Briton Irfan Musa P. received the maximum sentence of seven years and ten months, while UK-born Wayne Stewart B. and Fraz M. were each jailed for four years.

German Björn P. received a six-year sentence, and his father Robert was sentenced to four years, while Claude B, a Frenchman, will spend three years in prison.

The defendant’s full surnames have not been released.

A separate trial in Britain is set to start in February, after seven suspects pleaded not guilty to carousel fraud.

The EU scheme has suffered a series of scandals since its launch in 2005, including permit theft, the recycling of carbon credits, and hacking of carbon accounts.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Global warming was ALL ABOUT TAX from the beginning. The largest scam on the public in history. Wake up people !

What a shambles, how can anybody take the system seriously ? Once again it just seems to be a ‘licence to print money’ by those in the know. Another example of ‘insider trading’ at its finest and most corrupt. 🙁

“A judge in Germany said the defendants’ €300million (£250million) conspiracy had undermined efforts to tackle climate change and ‘brought the scheme into disrepute’.”
How can you bring the most massive fraud in history into disrepute?

Carbon credits are the icing on the cake of the biggest scam in the world. Worthless pieces of paper that due to the legislation passed by the various Governments around the world get more valuable as the limits are reduced year on year.
I also see that as usual the greedy grasping government whilst on the one hand is telling us these taxes are greatly needed to save the planet also slap VAT on as an added kick in the teeth to the stupid British tax payer as a luxury.
YOU PEOPLE MUST BE MAD ?

They brought the scheme into disrepute? That scheme was disreputable from its inception.

A judge in Germany said the defendants’ €300million (£250million) conspiracy had ‘brought the scheme into disrepute’. ================== Sorry? Am I missing something? The whole scheme is designed to raise additional taxes and nothing else, so for the EU Judges to claim this action brings the scheme into disrepute is a bit rich, after all, the scheme will NOT benefit the environment or climate, just bring in more revenue for the wastrels in Brussels to spread around in expenses or other largesse…..

The scheme was disreputable to start with.

Carbon credits are a bad EU joke funded by our money. This scam is the tip of the iceberg and the whole system is built on sand anyway. The lunacy of trading a commodity that is the negative value of something that can’t possibly be accurately measured at the best of times beggars belief.

A judge in Germany said the defendants’ €300million (£250million) conspiracy had undermined efforts to tackle climate change and ‘brought the scheme into disrepute’How can something so discredited possibly be ‘brought into disrepute’? The whole taxing scam is a scandal, and just another way of fleecing ordinary working people who have already been screwed over quite enough by successive governments. The fact that a couple of crooks jumped on the bandwagon just means there were more crooks aboard than before.

“…. undermined efforts to combat climate change”. What a hoot. Carbon permits are an elaborate confidence trick in themselves. The irony. The only mistake these guys made is they weren’t members of the right circle.

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