UK trader goes on trial in Denmark for ‘well-designed, organised’ massive tax fraud
- Sanjay Shah, who was arrested in June 2022, is accused of running a nine-billion-kroner (US$1.32 billion) scam that enabled firms to fraudulently claim Danish tax refunds
- He pleads not guilty and faces up to 12 years in prison if the Glostrup District Court in Copenhagen finds him guilty
A British hedge fund trader accused of defrauding Danish tax authorities in a billion-dollar scam went on trial in Copenhagen on Monday, with the government hoping to recover the money in the blockbuster case.
Sanjay Shah, who was arrested in June 2022 in Dubai where he was living, is accused of running a nine-billion-kroner (US$1.32 billion) scam that enabled companies he controlled to fraudulently claim Danish tax refunds between 2012 and 2015.
Shah, 53, on Monday pleaded not guilty and said he did not violate Danish law.
He faces up to 12 years in prison if the Glostrup District Court in Copenhagen finds him guilty.
The United Arab Emirates extradited Shah to Denmark in December, after years of negotiations which included the signing of an extradition treaty between the two countries in March 2022.
The prosecution claims Shah “used a well-designed and organised fraud scheme to submit more than 3,000 applications to unlawfully receive more than nine billion kroner in dividend tax refunds from the Treasury”.