The EU has charged five participants in the transnational VAT scheme “Goliath” worth €188 million
European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) has brought charges against five individuals suspected of involvement in a large-scale VAT scam referred to as “Goliath,” supposedly depriving the EU and its member states of more than 188 million euros ($216.81 million).
The accused—comprising three Danish nationals and two Turkish citizens residing in Germany—are suspected of operating or contributing to a criminal enterprise dedicated to marketing electronic devices. Additionally, a pair of them face accusations of employing the Hawala network—an unofficial system for transferring funds—to sanitize illegal gains and incite criminal activities in others.
The pair of principal accused—a Danish individual apprehended in Kenya during May 2024 and a Turkish individual—had already received sentences in March 2025 relating to similar tax avoidance matters. They are currently serving terms in Germany of five years and nine months, and five years and two months, in that order.
Inquiries revealed that the pair had previously been implicated in a network responsible for the infamous “Swedish attack,” a VAT fraud operation aimed at Sweden between 2017 and 2021 that resulted in substantial tax deficits. Subsequently, they established the Goliath criminal organization, which stands accused of perpetrating over a hundred instances of serious VAT fraud throughout the EU spanning from 2019 to 2023.
