Category: EU/Europe

Regulatory Watch News

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  Investigation ‘Echo’: EPPO arrests five suspected ringleaders in probe into VAT fraud involving wireless earbuds

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  August 26, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 26 August 2026) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Munich (Germany), five individuals were arrested today in Czechia, suspected of being the organisers of a criminal VAT fraud scheme involving the sales of wireless earbuds. As part of this investigation, code-named ‘Echo’, assets were also seized in Czechia, Germany and Lithuania. It is understood that the suspects are the ringleaders of an organised crime group that has been operating a VAT fraud system involving AirPods since at least 2019, causing an estimated damage of €20 million between 2019 and 2023.

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  Wise Europe SA: Bafin sets fine

  BaFin

  August 26, 2026

  The German financial regulator BaFin has imposed fines totaling €16,000 on Wise Europe SA. This is due to the company's failure to submit reports to BaFin's account comparison platform and its breaches of disclosure obligations. The Brussels-based institution had neglected for an extended period to report its account model, offered to consumers in Germany, to BaFin's account comparison platform.

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  FCA bans trio behind £35.5m scheme designed to bypass visa rules

  Financial Conduct Authority

  August 26, 2026

  The FCA has decided to ban 3 former senior figures at Dolfin Financial (UK) Limited (Dolfin) after finding they ran a scheme that helped clients bypass UK visa rules. Former chief executive Denisz Nagy has been fined £324,800 and former finance director Sanjay Maraj £122,000 for their roles in the scheme. Both have been banned from working in financial services. The FCA has also decided to ban Dolfin co-founder, Roman Joukovski, from working in financial services. Between 2016 and 2019, most clients using the scheme paid a fee of £400,000 instead of investing £2m of their own money in UK companies, as required under the Home Office investor visa rules. The FCA found the scheme was deliberately designed to create the false impression that the visa requirements had been met.