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Eurojust: Undeclared assets in Cyprus

21/09/2017 10:26
More than 1 million euro in undeclared assets has been revealed by a joint Eurojust operation in Cyprus, the Netherlands and Spain, after raids in 10 houses and a series of depositions by witnesses and suspects.

The joint operation came as a result of investigations into money laundering and tax fraud initiated by the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) of the Netherlands. The Dutch authorities were alerted by the discrepancy between the deposits and withdrawals made using the debit and credit cards and the lawfully acquired and reported income. The investigations detected that the suspects used debit and credit cards issued abroad and linked to foreign bank accounts involving many Dutch and international companies to hide the sources of the funds.

The international coordinated action by judicial and law enforcement authorities of the Netherlands, Spain and Cyprus, with the support of Eurojust, resulted in several bank accounts, real estate, an automobile, watches, cash and documents to be confiscated.

According to a written statement, Eurojust ensured proper coordination at EU level of the national investigations, and full legal and operational assistance to all national authorities involved. To this end, Eurojust set up a coordination centre at its premises in The Hague to coordinate the joint execution of the arrests, searches and seizures in the Netherlands, Spain and Cyprus, and to facilitate the real-time exchange of information among all judicial and law enforcement officials involved in the joint operations.