Hacker News Reader

Comment by tromp | Hacker News Reader

According to [1],

> In 2008 and 2009, multiple groups of fraudsters took advantage of differing tax rules in different EU countries to buy and sell carbon credits, or permission to emit carbon dioxide, on exchanges in Europe. The scammers would buy the credits in a country with no value-added tax, and quickly sell them in France or other countries that did charge VAT.

> Stephane Alzraa, 38, was extradited from Israel following a request by French authorities.

> Aknin remains in Israel, where he is fighting extradition

This 39 year old Michael Aknin seems to fit the story...

[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/trial-starts-for-franco-israel...

View on HN

Israel does not necessarily extradite for financial fraud, that is why Aknin is fighting it in court. There are many legal maneuvers available in the Israeli court system.

Israel refuses to extradite child rapists; hardly surprising that they'd refuse to give up mere fraudsters.

Neither does France

Only if you’re a French citizen do they not extradite. Might try you locally for your crimes abroad though.

> Might try you locally for your crimes abroad though.

Not for child rapists though[1]…

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski_sexual_abuse_...

famous child rapists. Non-famous child rapists need not apply for special treatment.

As far as extradition is concerned, in France, people with dual nationality (or several nationalities) are considered to be French and benefit from the rules applicable to French nationals (refusal of extradition). However, the date on which the offence was committed determines whether the perpetrator was French at the time of the offence. This is the point that poses a problem, as most of the perpetrators applied for Israeli nationality after the fact.

Very few countries extradite their nationals. The question is whether they are prosecuted in their country. Judicial cooperation between France and Israel is very poor. The problem with Israel is that it lets murderers go free. There are several scandalous cases of refusal to extradite and prosecute (an ex-policeman swatted the father of a rival in a scam buisness, the elderly father died of a heart attack). This has prompted the French state to mount operations with the Italian and Cypriot police to arrest French-Israelis outside of France.

I think it's Cyril Astruc. His parents fit the job descriptions in the article: tailor and teacher.

Absolutely. Also searching for his name shows pictures that perfectly fit the physical description and Vanity Fair link in the article.

Of course, it could just be one of his many pseudonyms ;)

Bingo. "He dressed in blazers cut from blue velvet or embroidered with shimmering brocade flowers. He liked to wear a diamond-encrusted Chopard sun pendant on his partially bared chest."

https://image-uniservice.linternaute.com/image/450/105809602...

Where / what are these "exchanges" in Europe? examples ?

They are mentioned many times in the article. Powernext and Bluenext.

Is that fraud or just arbitrage?

> Is that fraud or just arbitrage?

It's VAT fraud, so literally tax fraud.

If you read the article, it's fraud.

They ran the exact same fraud as had been run on cell phones.

> Criminals imported phones from other EU countries, sold them to consumers with VAT tacked on, pocketed the tax, and disappeared before anyone was the wiser. Or they used carousel schemes, pretending to sell phones through a chain of businesses created for the express purpose of fraud and requesting VAT reimbursements from governments at each point of sale.

This way of cheating with VAT is as old as there is a pan-European VAT agreement (the way to declare and manage it, not the amount). And sure as hell, there is always someone to try it. And sure as hell, someone is surprised they ultimately get cought...

They pocketed the sales tax and then never sent it to the government.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com