US pension funds involved in billion kroner SKAT fraud

Companies reportedly involved in speculative financial transactions led by Solo Capital Partners

Part of the 12.3 billion kroner defrauded from the Danish tax authority SKAT has ended up in US pension funds, according to national broadcaster DR Nyheder.

The pension funds have reportedly hired the Danish law firm Lundgrens in Hellerup to clear up their role in the case.

“It’s interesting if the pension funds have received money that should have remained in the Danish state coffers,” Lars Krull, a financial sector expert at Aalborg University, told DR Nyheder.

“We expect pension funds to behave properly.”

READ MORE: London financiers suspected of defrauding the Danish tax system

Shah me the money
The US pension funds were reportedly customers of the now-closed British hedge fund Solo Capital Partners, which was owned by the central suspect in the case, the British businessman Sanjay Shah.

Shah, who is currently in Dubai, is suspected of orchestrating the massive fraud, which began in 2012 and continued until last summer.

According to DR Nyheder, the US pension funds took part in a series of aggressive and speculative financial transactions led by Solo Capital Partners – including trading shares in Danish companies such as Maersk, Novo Nordisk and TDC with the sole purpose of getting the withholding tax refunded from SKAT.

“There is no doubt that if there are several of them that have applied to get the same withholding tax refunded, and there is only one that is permitted to do so, then it’s straight up fraud against the Danish state,” said Krull.

It is unclear how much of the 12.3 billion kroner has ended up in the US pension funds, and Lundgrens does not wish to comment on the case.

But SKAT has previously revealed that a total of 132 firms in the US and Malaysia were involved in the fraud, although it was not clear until now that US pension funds were part of it.

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