MILAN (Reuters) -Italian bank UniCredit on Friday said a German probe over alleged tax evasion concerned a single former client, after its Munich offices were raided in an investigation into a possible 200 million euro ($212 million) fraud.
UniCredit has owned Munich-based lender HVB since 2005.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said that it had conducted searches at a bank in Munich over possible value-added tax (VAT) fraud, without naming the lender involved.
UniCredit confirmed its Munich offices had been searched and said in an emailed statement that the probe is “related to a historical case involving an individual client”.
The EPPO said the suspect appeared to have received more than 200 million euros in bank transfers to his accounts in Germany between 2016 and 2022.
“When one bank he was using reported suspicion of money laundering, the suspect switched to the bank that is being searched today,” the EPPO said.
Prosecutors allege the money derived from a so-called VAT carousel fraud, a criminal scheme that takes advantage of European Union rules on cross-border transactions between member states, which are exempt from VAT.
“This issue was previously reported by the bank to the authorities and the bank is working with them, providing all necessary information to support this investigation with full transparency,” UniCredit said.
The EPPO said that based on the evidence the suspect used to withdraw up to several hundred thousand euros in cash on a near daily basis.
“The cash was disbursed by bank employees and payments were authorised under the relevant monitoring obligations – even though the large number of transactions should have triggered suspicion,” it said.
“In this regard, it is currently being evaluated whether the bank carried out the necessary due diligence measures under the Anti-Money Laundering Act,” the EPPO added.
Looking to expand its German footprint, UniCredit also bought a stake in Commerzbank in September, sparking a backlash in the euro zone’s biggest economy.
($1 = 0.9447 euros)
(Reporting by Miranda Murray, additional reporting Valentia Za, editing by Thomas Seythal, Kirsten Donovan)
