Welcome to Europe’s underground bazaar, where smartphones are filled with stones, boxes are packed with lies, and VAT rules are weaponized with surgical precision.

No, this isn’t the plot of a Netflix thriller, it’s the real deal, unearthed by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) under the code name Supernova, and it just scorched the continent.

From 3 June 2025, a surgical strike across Germany, France, Hungary, Lithuania, and the Netherlands unraveled a VAT carousel fraud that defrauded EU treasuries of over €100 million. What was sold? Smartphones, tablets, and a whole lot of bullshit wrapped in shipping documents.

Let’s break it down like we would for any Dutch SME CEO wondering,

"Why should I give a damn?"

THE GAME: VAT CAROUSEL FRAUD – THE MODERN ALCHEMY

Cross-border sales within the EU are VAT-exempt. That’s great, until someone realises they can buy high-tech gear VAT-free, resell it with VAT included, and vanish like a fart in the wind before paying that VAT back to the state.

Now amplify that over hundreds of shell companies across 5 countries, and you’ve got a Supernova. In this case, even the goods were sometimes fake. Investigators opened boxes expected to contain iPhones and found stones instead. Heavy enough to fool a scale. Not heavy enough to fool the FIOD.

WHY IT MATTERS FOR NL MICRO & SMALL BUSINESS

You might say:

"I just run a webshop selling refurbished tablets. This doesn’t affect me."

Oh, but it does.

Because in the tangled web of cross-border schemes, small and mid-sized companies are often:

• Unknowingly used as buffers in these fraud chains
• Offered tempting deals on high-margin tech goods that are too good to be true
• Left liable when the fake traders vanish, and the Belastingdienst comes knocking

This is why governance isn’t a luxury. It’s not something you adopt after growth, it’s how you stay out of trouble while growing. ZENTRIQ™ exists exactly for this reason: to equip your business with the risk radars and early detection frameworks needed to sniff out bullshit, before it poisons your operations.

XTROVERSO TAKEAWAY: LESSONS FROM SUPERNOVA

• Don’t just verify the product, verify the supplier.
  If you don’t know where your iPhones come from, you might be reselling stones and committing fraud without knowing it.
• Cross-border VAT deals = High risk.
  If a German firm offers you tax-free electronics with overnight delivery from Lithuania… red flags should be everywhere.
• Keep your books clean, traceable, and auditable.
  If your accountant can’t reconstruct the trail, the prosecutor will.
• Don’t trust the box. Trust the process.
  Your governance system should be your best employee. Let it speak before your lawyer has to.

TO WRAP IT UP

Four arrests. Ninety searches. Thirty-seven million seized. One hundred million lost.

This is just one operation, but there are more Supernovas waiting to detonate. If your company trades, imports, finances, or even just clicks "agree" on a shady supplier offer, you’re in the blast radius.

In true ZENTRIQ™ spirit, let’s honor the Governance and Compliance Avengers who took this down:

Germany:

• Tax sleuths from Mannheim, Ulm, Bavaria, Hesse, NRW…
• Police squads and prosecutors across Baden-Württemberg
• NRW's Financial Crime Office leading the state-level charge

France:

• ONAF, the elite Customs & Anti-Fraud unit
• Judicial police who kick doors, not just file reports

Hungary & Lithuania:

• Hardcore tax and customs squads, stepping up with financial crime units
• Chief Prosecutor's Office, Budapest—because someone has to write the indictments

The Netherlands:

• Our very own FIOD, the special ops of Dutch tax intelligence.
  (And let’s be honest, this operation wouldn’t have been complete without them.)

Europol:

• Providing backbone support, data fusion, and probably more espresso than any sane person should consume