A car dealer ring is said to have cheated the tax authorities by several hundred thousand euros. Tax investigators therefore searched several buildings belonging to an extended family in the Rhine-Main area, among other places.
Hessian and Bavarian tax investigators searched the living and business premises of 16 suspects on suspicion of gang tax evasion.
As the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday morning, numerous pieces of evidence and assets were confiscated during searches on Wednesday at a total of eight locations in Frankfurt and Offenbach as well as in the Offenbach, Groß-Gerau, Main-Taunus and Bavarian districts of Nuremberg – including vehicles, gold bars and Cash.
Fight against organized clan crime
According to the investigating authorities, the searches were directed against a ring of car dealers who are suspected of having cheated the state of around 410,000 euros in sales tax. To this end, they are said to have pretended, with the help of forged personal details and non-existent foreign companies, that they had sold high-priced cars abroad, for which no sales tax was due. In fact, the vehicles were resold in Germany.
The accused, aged 29 to 68, are said to be members of a family clan who organized the trade and tax fraud based on the division of labour, the public prosecutor said. A total of around 160 tax investigators and police officers were involved in the raids. Seven sniffer dogs were also used.
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