A 54-year-old British financier cheated the Danish tax authorities for three years and received the maximum sentence.
In Denmark, a British trader was found guilty of a mega tax fraud which cost the Danish government 9 billion Danish crowns, or 1.2 billion euros, according to the BBC. Sanjay Shah, who founded the London-based hedge fund Solo Capital Partners, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, after being ordered to repay €1.2 billion by a court in Dubai in May 2023. He This is the heaviest sentence ever handed down in Denmark for a fraud case. The trader used a series of complex operations to illegally recover 9 billion Danish crowns in dividend tax refunds from the Danish Treasury between 2012 and 2015.
The court in Glostrup (near Copenhagen) ruled, after a highly publicized trial which lasted several months, that Sanjay Shah, who lived in Dubai before his arrest in 2022 and his extradition to Denmark, played A “extremely major role» in a scheme that led to payments “unjustified», adding that the offense was “meticulously planned and organized“. Sitting between his lawyers, the 54-year-old Briton, who wished the court a Merry Christmas as he entered the courtroom, remained calm and impassive at the time of the verdict. The Danish prosecutor said the maximum sentence imposed on the culprit reflected “the extraordinarily high amount, the length of time it had lasted and his role, over several years, in this fraud against the Danish state». «This is by far the largest fraud in terms of amount and a crime on a scale that has never been seen before», added Marie Tullin.
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Banned from territory
In addition to his prison sentence, the trader was permanently banned from entering Denmark, once he has served his sentence and will see his assets estimated at a billion dollars (950 million euros) seized, as well as real estate. Although he has appealed the decision, Sanjay Shah, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have exploited a legal loophole, will remain in detention. “We think there is a good chance that the High Court will reach a different conclusion and we obviously hope for a more lenient judgment», Reacted his lawyer Kaare Pihlmann who tried to obtain a dismissal of the case. Shah is also facing a similar tax fraud case in London which is expected to conclude next April.
