[HN Gopher] Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe's fraud ...
___________________________________________________________________
Two scammers, a web of betrayal, and Europe's fraud of the century
Author : samclemens
Score : 61 points
Date : 2024-03-10 06:06 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (magazine.atavist.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (magazine.atavist.com)
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> I should say here that Gustav Daphne is a pseudonym. He
| remains a wanted man in France, so when I traveled to meet with
| him at his gated villa in Tel Aviv, he agreed to speak on the
| condition that I not use his name--any of his names._
|
| This caught my attention and I decided to do some sleuthing to
| see how hard it would be to figure out the real name and...
| there's dozens of people that might fit the description [1]. The
| cynic in me notes that they all seem to have dogs that the
| journalist just has to write, I guess as some sort of PR
| technique via emotional hook.
|
| _> He made contacts and built extensive networks of people
| willing to help him import and export fake goods, and he traveled
| around the world despite the risk it carried._
|
| Took quite a turn towards the end. He didn't turn over a new
| leaf, at all.
|
| [1]
| https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/03/t...
| (https://archive.ph/yG1dN)
| tromp wrote:
| According to [1],
|
| > In 2008 and 2009, multiple groups of fraudsters took advantage
| of differing tax rules in different EU countries to buy and sell
| carbon credits, or permission to emit carbon dioxide, on
| exchanges in Europe. The scammers would buy the credits in a
| country with no value-added tax, and quickly sell them in France
| or other countries that did charge VAT.
|
| > Stephane Alzraa, 38, was extradited from Israel following a
| request by French authorities.
|
| > Aknin remains in Israel, where he is fighting extradition
|
| This 39 year old Michael Aknin seems to fit the story...
|
| [1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/trial-starts-for-franco-
| israel...
| canadiantim wrote:
| Is that fraud or just arbitrage?
| throw_m239339 wrote:
| > Is that fraud or just arbitrage?
|
| It's VAT fraud, so literally tax fraud.
| ysofunny wrote:
| .
| reactordev wrote:
| Yeah. Loopholes are usually filled with the bodies of
| those that abused it to the point of being paved over. So
| even if _Chad_ was winning, he lost, and the ability to
| play will be removed.
| throw_m239339 wrote:
| The article spends at least 4 paragraphs explaining how
| the scheme works, did you read it?
|
| There is no loophole, since what they did was illegal to
| begin with and they knew it, it's a very basic and common
| scheme, it's VAT fraud and that type of fraud has existed
| since VAT exists.
| Recursing wrote:
| Reminds me of: https://xkcd.com/1494/
| bsder wrote:
| If you read the article, it's fraud.
|
| They ran the exact same fraud as had been run on cell phones.
|
| > Criminals imported phones from other EU countries, sold
| them to consumers with VAT tacked on, pocketed the tax, and
| disappeared before anyone was the wiser. Or they used
| carousel schemes, pretending to sell phones through a chain
| of businesses created for the express purpose of fraud and
| requesting VAT reimbursements from governments at each point
| of sale.
| nhggfu wrote:
| Where / what are these "exchanges" in Europe? examples ?
| shrubble wrote:
| Israel does not necessarily extradite for financial fraud, that
| is why Aknin is fighting it in court. There are many legal
| maneuvers available in the Israeli court system.
| yommiejonson wrote:
| >>There are many legal maneuvers available in the Israeli
| court system
|
| I bet
| kostas4949 wrote:
| I think it's Cyril Astruc. His parents fit the job descriptions
| in the article: tailor and teacher.
| dantondwa wrote:
| Funny that he is now into... cryptocurrencies. The man has
| experience with bogus markets.
| octopusRex wrote:
| So when does Netflix make a limited series based on this.
| burningChrome wrote:
| I think they already did in 2021 called "Lords of Scam".
| Atxgirl1415 wrote:
| Wow.. that is so crazy. Thank you for the good read
| contingencies wrote:
| Unmitigated hyperbole couched in minutia. Pop journalism at its
| epic worst.
|
| Bigger tax frauds occur daily.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > The way the system was supposed to work was simple enough: The
| EU would set an annual cap on its overall emissions, then issue
| various emitters a certain number of EU allowances. Each EUA
| would entitle its holder to emit one ton of carbon.
|
| I'm a serial pirate and I'll only do worse next year. Can you pay
| me to pirate a bit less next year, while giving nothing to those
| that never pirated at all?
| Swenrekcah wrote:
| It's not really comparable because the pollution was being
| generated as a byproduct of a presumably useful service or
| industry. This puts polluters under a regulatory limit that
| didn't exist before, gives the time to adjust while also
| providing an early incentive to decarbonise sooner rather than
| later (they can sell the credits they didn't need to use).
| mellutussa wrote:
| I'd love to listen to a podcast about this.
|
| When I saw "fraud of the century" I thought it was the OneCoin
| scam (Ruja Ignatova, "The Crypto Queen"). BBC did a very detailed
| investigative podcast about that one:
| https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/uj5nz-a0b8a/The-Missi...
| GauntletWizard wrote:
| [delayed]
| newprint wrote:
| Like FTX/SBF, this person would have probably become an
| accomplished businessman, if his criminal mind wasn't in his way.
| Fascinating to read how crafty those people in exploiting any
| gaps where potential profits could be made. They are like is
| financial "hackers" that can segfault some .org.
| mkoryak wrote:
| Like SBF?
| newprint wrote:
| yes, you are right !
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-03-10 23:00 UTC)