Tracking Tax Fraud and Sham Transactions

After increasingly brazen cases of tax evasion became known, especially among prominent German citizens such as Alice Schwarzer or former Bayern player, manager, and president Uli Hoeneß, the search by tax authorities and journalists for further cases is in full swing. You can also commission our detective agency in Munich (+49 89 7007 4378-0) to investigate a suspicion of tax evasion, for example if you are a company owner, private individual, tax official, or even a banker who may suspect an employee of conducting financial transactions for bank clients by illegal means.

The temptation to place money abroad in numbered accounts or invest it in sham transactions and thus, or in other ways, evade payments to the tax authorities is especially high for large and medium-sized companies, but also for wealthy private individuals. Our economic detectives in Munich repeatedly come into contact with tax offenses, sometimes directly in line with the assignment objective, sometimes as a secondary finding from the investigation of other criminal offenses.

VAT Carousel Defrauds 850 Million Euros

Only a few weeks ago, the verdict was handed down in a case against an internationally operating ring of tax fraudsters, in which five employees of a major German banking group were each sentenced to suspended prison terms of two years and fines of 200,000 euros, while the highest-ranking of these bank employees, department head and mastermind of the illegal foreign transactions, received a three-year prison sentence. In the period of just one year between 2009 and 2010, 850 million euros were evaded through VAT fraud. The bank employees had traded emission allowances for annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from abroad; these allowances were purchased abroad and resold multiple times in Germany by intermediary companies, but without paying sales tax on the purchases. The last intermediary company ultimately sold the papers abroad again and had the VAT refunded by the tax office, although it had never been paid in the first place.

In a case involving such high-level tax fraud, detectives such as those from Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Munich are active alongside the police, tax office, and tax investigation authorities to help apprehend the offenders and present court-admissible evidence that leads to a conviction: info@aaden-detektive-muenchen.de.

Procedure in Case of Suspected Tax Evasion or VAT Fraud

Our private detectives in Munich are of course not only specialized in cases of tax evasion involving sums in the hundreds of millions, but also investigate smaller, often private financial transactions, for example in the purchase of houses, apartments, and cars, (allegedly) dubious classified ads, or the acquisition of electronics. False statements are often made in order to deceive lenders, buyers, or tax authorities and therefore pay no taxes or only heavily reduced taxes. The notion that tax fraud involving small amounts hardly harms the economy is a widespread misconception.

If there is suspicion of tax evasion (deception, fraud, document forgery, false statements, and so on), our detective team in Munich begins its investigation: if legally permissible, the communication of the persons involved is monitored, payment paths and, if applicable, delivery routes are traced, and meetings with involved parties (accomplices) are observed so that court-admissible documented evidence can be gathered. Against suspicious employees, our economic investigators in Munich also occasionally use decoys who, during customer or advisory meetings with the employees concerned, check whether they suggest illegal tax tricks or attempt to generate their own profits through deliberate false advice. Through the testimony of these detective decoys, an intent to defraud can often be documented and proven in such cases.

Germany Is Defrauded of Up to 100 Billion Euros in Taxes Every Year

As already explained, the German economy is repeatedly harmed each year to an unimaginable extent in the billions; Stern estimates the losses to the state through money laundering, illegal employment, and illegal tax tricks at between 30 and 159 billion euros per year, money that could otherwise have been used for the public good. The sum currently regarded as most likely is the 100 billion euros that Brigitte Unger, director of the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences at the Hans Böckler Foundation, suspects as the annual loss. Although the purchase of tax CDs, primarily from Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein, has helped expose some long-term tax offenders and since 2010 more than 123,000 tax evaders have turned themselves in (see Statista), it is impossible for the police and tax investigation authorities to significantly curb the tax losses.

With the help of professionally trained economic and private investigators such as those at Aaden Detective Agency Munich, however, further possibilities can be exploited to apprehend tax fugitives and tax offenders that are not available to official investigators due to time and personnel constraints as well as legal restrictions and bureaucratic limitations. Especially when private individuals or company managers need help, for example because they suspect tax offenders among their employees based on concrete indications such as inconsistent figures, but no clear involvement of the relevant workers can be proven, the deployment of a private investigator or several detectives for surveillance is the only solution. In cases involving relatively small amounts of tax evasion, neither the police nor the tax office will act directly, especially when the matter has a civil-law character, such as financial damage to the employer, in the foreground. Commissioning Aaden Economic Detective Agency Munich is particularly advisable when suspicion of tax evasion within one’s own ranks is to be investigated discreetly so that the company is not publicly discredited or otherwise harmed.

Commissioning Aaden Commercial Detective Agency Munich

If you notice irregularities in your company or in purchases you have made, please contact our detective agency in Munich in confidence to receive a free consultation on how to proceed in your very personal case. We will explain in detail which conditions must necessarily be met for surveillance of the suspicious persons, which forms and tactics of investigation are necessary or advisable, and what costs are expected: +49 89 7007 4378-0.