BRUSSELS, Dec 22 (KUNA) -- The European Union's anti-fraud office, OLAF, said here Tuesday that it has uncovered a scam in which jeans and t-shirts which originated in China were sold in European markets with forged documents showing Bangladesh as their country of origin.
During the investigations in 2007, 2008 and 2009, OLAF said thousands of documents, such as certificates of origin, bills of lading, customs export documents, delivery receipts and invoices presented to customs in EU countries and to the competent Bangladesh authorities, were found to be forged by third parties.
By falsely showing Bangladesh as the country of origin the importers of the textiles, gained unrestricted and duty-free access to the European markets and evaded import duties.
OLAF together with other EU countries concerned have established a customs debt of around 50 million euros in the textile scam.
For this amount, recovery orders to the importers will be issued by the customs administrations in almost all 27-EU member states, said OLAF in a statement. - Kuna