Liège airport has been successful in hunting down fraudsters, however, given that it is an important commercial transit space, with 20 million items being processed there each month, the number of packages handled this year has halved as compared to 2021, from 625 million to just 325 million. Customs has played a role in foiling many scams. Florence Angelici, Spokesperson for the Federal Public Service Finance, confirms that several factors could explain the decline in package volume, including the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis which means that people have ordered less, and the increased number of operators checked by customs. The airport has been targeted by fraudsters who have taken advantage of the cardboard of e-commerce to generate significant income. Customs found themselves overwhelmed by the volume of parcels, so the controls were strengthened in 2022 leading to the reversal of the situation. Major frauds involving VAT and origin fraud are being investigated with compensation of up to 70 million being requested against the biggest sellers.
Liège airport hunts down fraudsters. And obviously, it works, very well even. However, the airport is a very important commercial transit space. 20 million items are processed there each month. But the number of packages handled this year has halved compared to 2021, from 625 million to just 325 million. So many scams that have been foiled by customs.
“There are several possible explanations. In particular the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis which means that people have ordered less. We also have a certain number of operators for whom customs have checked”, confirms Florence Angelici, Spokesperson for the Federal Public Service Finance. It must be said that the airport has so far been the delight of fraudsters, who took advantage of the cardboard of e-commerce to generate significant income.
The volume of parcels was such that customs found themselves overwhelmed. But the controls were greatly reinforced in 2022, which led to many reversals of the situation. “There are two reflexes when there is a fraud”tells us Raphaël Van De Sande, customs expert and lecturer at HEC Liège. “On the one hand, those who want to defraud are looking for places where there is less surveillance. On the other hand, the operators of Liège wanted to part with it, because they no longer wanted to take any risk”.
Result: millions of parcels have been refused, which deprives the scammers of the last step of their logistics plan. Two major frauds are being investigated: VAT fraud, by falsifying the declaration linked to the sale price by seeing it lower in order to pay less tax, but also origin fraud, by making believe that the product arrived in Belgium is sent to another country, where the VAT should have been declared. Except that it never will be, which still makes money for these fraudsters.
74 cases linked to fraudulent operators are in progress before the Criminal Court of Liège, with up to 70 million in compensation requested against them, for the biggest sellers. An expensive scam.
In conclusion, Liège airport has successfully cracked down on fraudsters who were taking advantage of the high volume of packages being processed at the facility. The increased customs controls have resulted in the halving of the number of packages handled this year, indicating the effectiveness of the measures taken. However, there are still ongoing investigations into major frauds related to VAT and origin. The airport’s actions send a strong message to those who attempt to evade the law and highlights the importance of customs controls in protecting against fraud in commercial transit spaces.