38 million British pounds was the presumed gain in a carbon credit scam investigated by British police.
130 officers raided 27 business and residential premises in Greater London and Kent, and arrested nine people suspected of being involved in the conspiracy, Financial Times reports.
According to the newspaper, the heart of the scam was to exploit British VAT legislation. Carbon credits were bought overseas VAT-free and sold in UK at prices including VAT.
“There is an increasing amount of fraud connected with them (carbon credits) as a commodity. It’s trading with something that’s intangible, and that isn’t regulated in the way some other commodities are,” comments Anand Doobya, partner at law firm Peters & Peters.
The government has recently made carbon credits VAT-free, thus preventing similar cases in the future.
Morten Andersen 20/08/2009 13:15
* Financial Times: Nine held in carbon trading swoop