Denmark charges another six, from U.S., UK, over tax fraud scheme

Denmark’s state prosecutor said on Tuesday it had charged six people from the United States and Britain with defrauding Danish tax authorities of more than 1.1 billion crowns ($176 million) in a sham trading scheme.

The charges against three U.S. and three British citizens are connected to the so-called “cum-ex” trading schemes, in which the Danish state has lost more than 12.7 billion crowns in total.

In January, Denmark charged two UK citizens, bringing the total number of people charged to eight.

They are suspected of running a scheme that involved submitting applications to the Danish Treasury on behalf of investors and companies from around the world to receive dividend tax refunds, the prosecutor said.

The defendants face up to eight years imprisonment for “gross fraud” if found guilty, although the prosecutor said the maximum penalty could be raised to 12 years under a special section of the law.

All eight are at large.

via Reuters