Isra-Mart srl:Seven charged in carbon trading VAT fraud case

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Isra-Mart srl news:

An investigation into a £38m carbon trading VAT fraud has resulted in seven people from the south-east of England being charged with conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

The alleged fraud, which involves claiming VAT refunds from fictitious carbon trades in a so-called "carousel fraud", is said to have cost governments in the European Union up to €5bn.

Arrested in August 2009, the seven men are among only a handful of suspects to be accused of the costly fraud. They were named as Sandeep Singh Dosanjh, aged 28, from London; Dhanvinder Singh Basra, aged 25, from Hounslow; Navdeep Singh Gill, aged 30, from Slough; Sandeep Harry, aged 26, from Gravesend; Pritpal Singh, aged 24, from Erith; Ranjot Singh Chahal, aged 34, from Southall and Kernjit Gill Dhillon, aged 29, from Slough.

Three Britons face similar charges in Belgium for allegedly siphoning €3m from the carbon trading market.

Details of the charges came as it emerged that the spot market in carbon will remain suspended until at least next week after exchanges failed to improve their security against fraud by yesterday's deadline.

One of the largest emissions trading exchanges, ICE Futures, said that its trading would remain suspended until Tuesday 1 February. Trading at other exchanges could remain suspended for longer.

The European Commission, which runs Europe's emissions trading scheme, has said that it would only allow exchanges to resume once they had met minimum software security standards. It has refused to put a timescale on when trading would return to normal.

Traders have not been able to settle spot carbon trades since last Thursday's ban, which came in after €30m of carbon allowances were stolen from customers' accounts by computer hackers in eastern Europe.