Dutch prosecutors arrest man linked to dividend-stripping tax fraud scheme

The global fraud involved banks and investors claiming multiple bogus tax rebates on dividends by misusing now-closed loopholes in tax systems that authorities failed to spot or halt at the time. German researchers have estimated the total cost of this fraud for European tax offices at 141 billion euros, with 26 billion euros paid by the Dutch tax office, the prosecutors said.

Dutch prosecutors on Tuesday arrested a man who is seen as one of the leading figures in a dividend-stripping tax fraud scheme, which is estimated to have cost European tax offices billions of euros over the past decades. Prosecutors said they had arrested a 53-year-old man in the Dutch town of Aerdenhout, who is suspected of having led a fraudulent scheme in which at least 4 million euros ($4.3 million) of unjust rebates of dividend taxes were claimed and received.

Sources close to the investigation confirmed media reports identifying the man as former Fortis banker Frank Vogel, who is internationally regarded as one of the originators of the scheme. The global fraud involved banks and investors claiming multiple bogus tax rebates on dividends by misusing now-closed loopholes in tax systems that authorities failed to spot or halt at the time.

German researchers have estimated the total cost of this fraud for European tax offices at 141 billion euros, with 26 billion euros paid by the Dutch tax office, the prosecutors said. "Dividend stripping is a serious form of organised white collar crime," the prosecutors said in a statement, adding that tax offices missed out on collecting "hundreds of millions of euros every year" due to the fraud.

($1 = 0.9353 euros)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)