Acting on a request from EPPO’s Bologna and Naples offices, the Italian Guardia di Finanza carried out new seizures within the Fuel family investigation, which centres on a €260 million VAT fraud linked to fuel imported into the Italian market through a network of shell companies and tax warehouses used to evade the levy. Investigators found that the fuel arrived from suppliers in Croatia and Slovenia, as well as other countries, before being distributed via a chain of more than forty missing traders that vanished without paying the VAT due.
The seizures carried out on 14 November 2025 concern assets traceable to a company formally registered in the name of the wife of the alleged head of the network but effectively managed by him. The entrepreneur from Campania was convicted at first instance on 15 October and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, a fine of €8,600 and the confiscation of assets worth up to €73 million. The company owned a tax warehouse in Magenta, near Milan, identified by investigators as a logistics hub supporting the fuel flows involved in the carousel fraud scheme.
The investigation, initiated by EPPO’s Bologna and Naples offices and conducted by the economic and financial police units of Naples and Verbania together with the Casalnuovo company, progressively reconstructed the group’s structure. Family ties among several members of the criminal association are believed to have ensured stability within the network, active in the trade of fuels in Italy and abroad. The imports relied on a triangular scheme involving intermediary operators with no real business activity, used to generate chains of invoices for simulated transactions. According to EPPO, this mechanism produced documentation exceeding €1 billion, causing an estimated €260 million loss in unpaid VAT.
The operational structure of the group had already been dismantled in March 2024, when 59 individuals were placed under investigation, thirteen companies were identified and precautionary measures were issued against eight suspects, including the alleged organisers. In April, assets worth €20 million were seized, including a tourist resort and more than 150 properties across several regions.
Alongside the VAT fraud, investigators uncovered a money-laundering system based on bank accounts held by companies in Hungary and Romania. More than €35 million in illicit proceeds is believed to have been transferred to these accounts and later returned in cash to the organisers through repeated withdrawals, designed to obscure the origin of the funds.
The VAT evasion also enabled the group to sell fuel at discounted prices, distorting competition in the national market and affecting the distribution network, which is already exposed to pressures linked to fluctuating volumes and differences between official and parallel channels. EPPO, responsible for protecting the European Union’s financial interests and handling cross-border criminal investigations, helped reconstruct the import chain and money flows, providing a clear picture of responsibilities.
