*****EuroPol (EU Police) Reports 90% of EU Carbon Credits trading is fraudulent

[Viking1]

From Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet:  http://ekstrabladet.dk/

9 December 2009


Connie Hedegaard, Head of COP15 and New EU Climate Commissar

Silent on widespread fraud

European police Europol reveals that there is fraud with 90 percent of CO2 credits traded. Revelations come after Ekstra Bladet has reported on the matter.

According to the European police force Europol,  the European market for trading CO2 is permeated with fraud. In some countries up to 90 percent of sales related to fraud, reports Europol.

In total it is estimated that in the past 18 months companies have been defrauded out of more than 37 billion dollars. Europol said in a press release on the Danish CO2 market. In May this year the Danish quota system registered a massive increase in turnover of CO2 allowances, with 'several hundred million' allowances traded on the exchange.

At the time, a single quota cost 12.5 Euro - just over 90 pounds.

Europol is now a working group with representatives from six countries to combat widespread fraud.

Ekstra Bladet has a series of articles documenting that the Danish quota registry - registering trade allowances - are leaky as a sieve. Several accounts are registered under a false name or by companies that are under compulsory bankruptcy.

The Energy Ministry responded to Ekstra Bladet's criticism by saying that 'it is under control."

Until a few weeks ago, the former Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard had responsibility for running the register. Now it lies with her successor Lykke Friis.

Connie Hedegaard (head of COP15 and new EU Climate Commissar) will not speak to Ekstra Bladet on the matter.

http://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/videnskab_og_teknik/article1267245.ece

Ifølge det europæiske politi Europol er det europæiske marked for handel med CO2 gennemsyret af svindel. I visse lande er op til 90 procent af omsætningen relateret til svindel, meddeler Europol.

I alt anslås det, at der i de seneste 18 måneder er blevet svindlet for mere end 37 milliarder kroner. Europol udpeger i sin pressemeddelelse det danske CO2-marked. I maj i år blev der i det danske kvotesystem registreret en voldsom stigning i omsætningen af CO2-kvoter, hvor 'adskillige hundrede millioner' kvoter blev handlet på kryds og tværs.

På det tidspunkt kostede en enkelt kvote 12,5 euro - lidt over 90 kroner.

Europol nedsætter derfor nu en arbejdsgruppe med repræsentanter fra seks lande, der skal bekæmpe den omfattende svindel.

Ekstra Bladet har i en række artikler dokumenteret, at det danske kvoteregister - der registrerer handlen med kvoter - er gennemhullet som en si. Adskillige konti er registreret under falsk navn eller af firmaer, der er under tvangsopløsning.

Energistyrelsen har svaret på Ekstra Bladets kritik ved at sige, at 'der er styr på det'.

Indtil for få uger siden var det tidligere klima- og energiminister Connie Hedegaard der havde ansvaret for driften af registeret. Nu ligger det hos hendes efterfølger Lykke Friis.

Connie Hedegaard vil ikke udtale sig til Ekstra Bladet om sagen.

[Viking1]

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/climate-warming.1v1

  Tax fraud loses EU carbon trading billions: Europol
09 December 2009, 18:07 CET
— filed under: climate, warming, fraud

(THE HAGUE) - Tax fraudsters have targeted the EU's carbon emissions trading system, pocketing about five billion euros (7.4 billion dollars), the Europol police agency said Wednesday.

"The European Union Emission Trading System has been the victim of fraudulent traders in the past 18 months," said the agency in a statement.

"This resulted in losses of approximately five billion euros for several national tax revenues."

The agency, based in The Hague, added that it estimated "in some countries, up to 90 percent of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities."

France, the Netherlands, the UK and Spain had all changed their tax rules on the transactions to prevent further losses, the agency said.

"After these measures were taken, the market volume in the aforementioned countries dropped by up to 90 percent," according to the statement.

According to a Europol official, the alleged fraudulent traders set themselves up in one country and bought carbon polluting allowances from a second country, making the allowances exempt from value-added tax (VAT). They were then allegedly sold on to firms in the country where the trader was based, but with the VAT added on, the official said.

The traders are accused of pocketing the VAT instead of handing it to tax authorities, the official said.

The Emission Trading System was launched in the EU in 2005 in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists link to global warming.

Under the system, the EU allocates carbon polluting allowances to member states to meet its obligations under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.

The states then assign quotas to those industries that belch most CO2 into the atmosphere.

Companies that emit less than their allowance can sell the difference on the market to companies that exceed their limits, thus providing a financial carrot to everyone to become greener.

[Viking1]

Correction:  Google translate Danish krone as dollars and I didn't see that and it's too late to edit my post--the actual figure is $7.4 Billion Dollars or 37 Billion Krone.

[Dig]

need others besides the satanic EU to expose this bullshit!

[Dig]

Correction:  Google translate Danish krone as dollars and I didn't see that and it's too late to edit my post--the actual figure is $7.4 Billion Dollars or 37 Billion Krone.

the 90% is the important issue here!

[Viking1]

Yeah, this is major, but so far only Ekstra Bladet and EUBusiness.com covering it.

I sent a message to Russia Today--hopefully they'll do a story.

[Viking1]

It has finally hit the fringes of the corporate media, but they're hiding it in blogs and back pages:

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=europol+carbon

 December 10, 2009, 2:05 pm
Europol: $7.4 Billion Lost from Carbon Trading Fraud in Europe
By ROBERT P. WALZER

Post Updated | 3:53 p.m. Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement arm against organized crime, announced on Wednesday that carbon-trading fraud has cost the bloc’s governments $7.4 billion in lost tax revenue over the last 18 months.

“We have an ongoing investigation,’’ said Soren Pedersen, Europol’s chief spokesman, in a telephone interview on Thursday from The Hague. “We’re afraid the fraud is not completely finished yet, unfortunately. But it’s positive to see that actions are being taken and we hope soon it will disappear.”

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/europol-74-billion-lost-from-carbon-trading-fraud-in-europe/

[Viking1]

I missed this one.  

If you kill someone, you can't become murder-neutral by saving a life.

 August 20, 2009, 10:03 am
Carbon Traders Arrested for Tax Fraud
By JAMES KANTER



British customs officials arrested seven people near London on Wednesday Thursday who are suspected of dodging taxes that should have been paid for selling large amounts of carbon dioxide permits — the main currency in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System.
Rev

The suspected fraud amounted to £38 million, or nearly $63 million, the British tax agency, HM Revenue & Customs, said in a statement.

“It is thought that the proceeds of this crime have then been used to finance lavish lifestyles and the purchase of prestige vehicles. Further arrests are likely and the investigation continues,” the agency said, adding that it had searched 27 properties during the sweep and used dogs to search for cash.

Many polluting businesses in Europe are required to buy the permits, which are part of a cap-and-trade system similar to the one under consideration in the United States, and which currently trade for about 15 euros ($21) for each ton of CO2 emitted.

The market, created in 2005, has been criticized for volatility and for rewarding some of the largest utilities with billions of euros in windfall profits.

This year, some analysts said the market was finally showing signs of working, by pushing companies to switch to cleaner technologies, such as using natural gas instead of coal, to produce electricity.

British officials said the people arrested could be part of an organized group that operated a network of companies trading large volumes of the permits. The officials did not name those arrested. The agency said the fraud was carried out by companies in the network that bought the carbon permits outside of Britain without paying Value Added Tax, a levy known as V.A.T.

The companies in the network are suspected of adding the V.A.T. to the price of the permits, which they sold in Britain. The companies then disappeared before paying the tax to British authorities.

Last month, Britain exempted carbon trading from the V.A.T. to curb the possibility of similar cases in the future. France and the Netherlands took similar steps earlier in the summer. Even so, the tax agency said it “still intends to pursue relentlessly those that may have used carbon credit trading to cheat the public purse.”

[Viking1]

 October 12, 2009, 10:40 am
Firms Announce Major Offsets Transaction
By LEORA BROYDO VESTEL

Does the deal suggest growing confidence in a regulated carbon market in North America?

In what its participants call the largest deal of its kind in the United States, Goldman Sachs Group, Blue Source and CE2 Carbon Capital are expected to announce on Monday that they have completed a $12 million carbon offsets transaction.

The offsets originate from several emissions-reducing projects managed by Blue Source, a Salt Lake City company that also develops carbon capture and storage projects. These include a carbon sequestration project in forested areas along the Alligator River in North Carolina, as well as projects that capture methane generated from landfills and coal mines.

Goldman Sachs, the global investment bank, structures and markets emissions offsets arising from Blue Source projects (it purchased a minority stake in Blue Source last year).

CE2, one of the largest investors in carbon commodities, purchases offsets as part of a long-term, portfolio-building strategy.

According to Alan Heaton of CE2 Carbon — a San Diego-based manager of environmental and energy commodities — the transaction reflects growing confidence in a regulated carbon market in the United States, even though the concept is still the subject of much debate in Congress.

“The deal signifies how important offsets are likely to be under a federal cap-and-trade program,” Mr. Heaton said. “It shows there is real capital and high-profile participants that are in the market today.”

Under proposed legislation like the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (a k a the Waxman-Markey climate bill), businesses in smokestack industries – such as power companies and petroleum refiners – would be able to purchase offsets to meet a portion of their compliance obligations, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.

“This is a significant transaction in the emerging U.S. carbon market,” said Gerrit Nicholas, head of American environmental commodities at Goldman Sachs. “We expect that this activity will increase substantially in the coming months as energy market participants digest the impact of carbon legislation at the federal level.”

Representatives of Goldman Sachs and CE2 would not disclose the value of the deal in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – the volumetric standard by which offsets are often measured.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/firms-announce-major-offsets-transaction/

[Viking1]

New Energy Finance said the value of the world’s carbon markets was expected to reach $122 billion by the end of 2009, and $1.9 trillion by 2020, as long as carbon-trading legislation was passed in Australia, the United States and Japan.

New Energy Finance said the market was worth $119 billion in 2008 and $65 billion in 2007.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/carbon-permit-tax-fraud-drove-huge-increases-in-market-volume-report-finds/

[jofortruth]

Organized Crime in Charge of EU Carbon Trade, Europol Says
http://www.infowars.com/organized-crime-in-charge-of-eu-carbon-trade-europol-says/