German prosecutors seek arrest of Peter Virdee (AKA “Batman”) for €125 million carbon credit VAT fraud

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By Chris Lang

Prosecutors in Frankfurt am Main announced this week that they are seeking the arrest of a 46-year-old British businessman charged with running a criminal gang that pocketed €125 million via a carbon credit VAT carousel fraud.

The prosecutors said the man “ensured his identity was hidden, used various aliases and was known within the group as ‘Batman’”.

The prosecutors didn’t name the suspect for privacy reasons, according to an Associated Press report.

But the German newspaper Handelsblatt points out what anyone who’s been following this story already knows:

He always wears a tailored suit and turban, lives in London in one of the most elegant and expensive parts of the city. And he posed in photos with celebrities such as footballer Mesut Özil, pop star Rihanna and even the Queen. Peter Virdee Singh.

Handelsblatt reports that according to the investigators, Virdee was one of the main organisers of the VAT carousel fraud. He provided millions of euros to buy the carbon credits. Through a company he controls, registered in the Seychelles, he fed the carbon credits into the chains of companies that traded the carbon credits across borders. And he was in charge of a Frankfurt-based company that led the carousel.

Deutsche Bank was part of the carousel. The district court in Frankfurt has sentenced six ex-Deutsche Bank employees in recent years.

Virdee claims his innocence

Peter Virdee Singh denies the allegations. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport in January 2017. But Virdee’s German lawyers challenged the arrest warrant, and Virdee was not extradited to Germany.

In January 2017, following the arrest, Virdee put out a statement on his website, in which he denied the allegations:

Prof. Virdee categorically denies these allegations. He has never been involved in carbon trading let alone in any kind of fraud. While he is happy to co-operate with the authorities he intends to defend himself fully against these allegations and the attempts to extradite him to Germany….

It appears that the only basis for the making of any allegations against Prof Virdee is from a statement given by a convicted fraudster, who entered into some form of plea bargain in return for implicating other people, including Prof Virdee, in the alleged fraud.

In November 2016 a court in Germany found Mohsin Salya guilty of carbon credit VAT fraud. He was jailed for three years and three months.

Virdee and corruption in the Caribbean

From 31 January 2015 to 26 January 2017, the German authorities tapped Virdee’s phone as part of their investigations into the suspected VAT fraud.

In 2018, some of the contents of those phone calls became public in a hearing involving Virdee at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The phone calls reveal Virdee talking to a business partner, Dieter Trutschler, about payments to high level Caribbean politicians.

The conversations are pretty revealing. Watches, cars, shoes, and money, offered to high level politicians and their families in Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis, where one of Virdee’s companies was hoping for new contracts.

No, Brexit won’t save Batman

Before Brexit, the UK took part in about 40 European Union measures aimed at supporting and enhancing internal security and judicial cooperation among member states. 

One of these, the 2003 Extradition Act, provides the rules for extraditions from the UK to other EU countries. The European Arrest Warrant applies in all EU countries.

After Brexit, the Handelsblatt argues, Britain no longer applies European Arrest Warrants against its citizens.

But on 1 February 2020 (the day after Brexit) Business Insider reported a Home Office spokesperson as saying that, “The European Arrest Warrant continues to apply during the Implementation Period.”

The Implementation Period runs until 31 December 2020. That’s surely enough time to extradite Batman.

 

17 thoughts on “German prosecutors seek arrest of Peter Virdee (AKA “Batman”) for €125 million carbon credit VAT fraud”

  1. WELL DONE! This very good news that people like him are finally taken to task and punished for their crimes. Congratulations to all thoes who have been instrumental in this magnificent outcome.

    Keep the good work up.

    One day I hope that the xxxxxxxx who scammed me are tracked down and that I may receive some compensation for my losses, of funds, extreme depression , loss of pension pot and quality of life that has resulted.

  4. Virdee aka Fudu Singh continues to post instagram pics with punjabi singers and post videos during covid in punjabi to show his community action and token good deeds in hope of mitigating the fact that he is a self obsessed moron – dirty money does not buy class.

  5. If the man has got away with it.. time and time again… it beggars the question why and how? “Grass” comes to mind.

  6. Hi no Mr Peter Virdee is not a GRASS he is a legitimate businessman. People are just jealous of his success and will try anything to ruin him, but things like this will just make him stronger and Waheguru is with him all the way.

  7. Peter virdi singh is top class person!
    People just getting jealous of his success!
    Waheguru blessed him so much!
    He’s got golden heart 💛

  8. All these sad fools who are so jealous of his success. Look at yourselves fools and you will see what pricks you are. I wish him well he’s innocent till proved otherwise. Only evidence against him from convicted criminal for a reduced sentence. Lmao

  9. Peter Virdee is being extradited to Germany to face trial for fraud. Will the charities that he donated to, like the Central Gurdwara also be investigated?

  10. Law360 reports that on 19 July 2021, in a judgement at Westminster Magistrates Court, Judge Michael Snow ordered the extradition of Peter Singh Virdee to face tax fraud charges in Germany:

  11. Unfortunately, doing dirty deeds in someone else’s name is not enough to get away with it these days. And showing off does not help either with photos of him partying with accomplices in Dubai when they were released from prison – on that occasion it was VAT carousel fraud – even the people who didn’t go to prison but were part of the conspiracy with buffer companies are in the photos – utter plonkers :-)

    https://syedfarazhussain1.wordpress.com/

  12. https://www.desiblitz.com/content/jail-for-billionaire-batman-for-grand-scale-tax-fraud

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/frankfurt-am-main-batman-wegen-millionen-steuerhinterziehung-zu-mehr-als-drei-jahren-haft-verurteilt-a-42f6c2fa-5cbf-487f-8c26-2702fa297e94

    »Batman« zu mehr als drei Jahren Haft verurteilt
    Es ging um Umsatzsteuerbetrug im ganz großen Stil: Der Brite Peter Virdee Singh, genannt »Batman«, ist nach SPIEGEL-Informationen zu einer Freiheitsstrafe verurteilt worden. Dabei wurde sein Geständnis berücksichtigt.
    23.12.2021, 21.43 Uhr

    “Batman” sentenced to more than three years in prison
    It was about sales tax fraud on a grand scale: The Briton Peter Virdee Singh, known as “Batman”, has been sentenced to imprisonment according to SPIEGEL information. His confession was taken into account.
    December 23, 2021, 9.43 p.m.

  13. December 2021; sentenced to more than three years in prison

    https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/frankfurt-am-main-batman-wegen-millionen-steuerhinterziehung-zu-mehr-als-drei-jahren-haft-verurteilt-a-42f6c2fa-5cbf-487f-8c26-2702fa297e94

    Clever thing he did was inject the dirty money into politics, public relations, religion and create a reputation which is by no means in tatters as the community he represents is largely wooed by fast cars and loadsamoney :-)

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