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24/10/2025   European Public Prosecutor's Office News

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Czechia: EPPO seizes €7.9 million, brings additional charges in investigation into hospital medical supply corruption (Luxembourg, 24 October 2025) – In an investigation into public contracts for hospital medical supplies, led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Prague (Czechia), a freezing order of €7.9 million has been executed and additional charges were brought against suspects. Bank accounts, real estate, cash and luxury watches were seized by the Czech police’s National Centre against Organised Crime (Národní centrála proti organizovanému zločinu – NCOZ). Additional charges were also brought against eight of the ten suspects previously accused in February 2024, for other public procurements under investigation. Furthermore, charges were also brought against two new suspects and seven companies. At issue is a suspected criminal organisation, active since at least 2022, believed to have systematically manipulated public procurement for hospital medical supplies to favour pre-selected suppliers. In some cases, equipment was procured without any formal tender. The equipment included operating tables, laparoscopic and arthroscopic tools, endoscopes, defibrillators, surgical drills and ventilators. Based on the evidence, preferred suppliers were involved in drafting tender specifications before the tenders were publicly announced, allowing contracts to be tailored in their favour. Confidential information, including competing offers and clarification requests, was also allegedly shared with them – sometimes enabling them to draft responses themselves. When a preferred supplier won a contract, they allegedly paid a 10% bribe to officials at the contracting authority, via an intermediary, who also acted as the head of the organised criminal group. To conceal the origin of the funds, the group allegedly used fake invoices for non-existent services issued by affiliated companies. The bribes were then distributed in cash among group members by the alleged leader.   more

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Germany: Over 100 searches and seven arrests in probe into €48 million VAT fraud (Luxembourg, 24 October 2025) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Munich (Germany), seven suspects have been arrested, and over 100 searches were carried out in seven countries, in an investigation into organised VAT fraud involving small electronic goods. They are suspected of defrauding €48 million in VAT. The investigation, code-named Mela, stretches across Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. During the searches, carried out by over 300 tax investigation and police officers, a large number of documents, electronic devices and evidence were seized, as well as cash, mobile phones, jewellery, cars, watches and gold worth €4 million. At issue is a suspected criminal scheme whereby shell companies, based in several EU Member States and the United Kingdom, fraudulently applied a reduced VAT scheme to the sale of electronic goods since 2018, to illicitly increase their profits. According to the investigation, new mobile phones and other small electronic goods were sold under the so-called ‘margin taxation’ scheme to end customers and between the shell companies. This means that the reseller only has to pay VAT on the profit margin they make (the difference between the price paid for the item and the price for which it is sold), and not on the full sale price of the item. Usually, this taxation scheme is only applied to resold goods on which VAT had been paid already, whereas in this case, it is believed that new products were sold, solely on paper and only in terms of taxes, as if they were resold goods. Therefore, the goods could be sold at a lower market price, causing unfair competition and a loss of €48 million in VAT.

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