billion-dollar fraud

Billion-dollar fraud is an informal term for economic crime of unusually large scale, involving deception, evasion or unlawful appropriation of assets running into the billions. The expression is used primarily in the media and in public debate and is not an independent criminal law category under Danish law. In legal terms, cases popularly described as billion-dollar fraud are typically investigated and prosecuted under the general provisions of the Danish Penal Code (straffeloven) on fraud, tax evasion or other economic offences.

The decisive element is that the perpetrator, through misleading conduct, false information or concealment, has unlawfully obtained a financial advantage for himself or others. Where the sums involved run into the billions, this is taken into account as an aggravating circumstance in sentencing.

Examples of cases described as billion-dollar fraud include the Danish dividend tax case, in which foreign investors and intermediaries obtained refunds of dividend tax through constructed share transactions, although the tax had never been paid to the Danish state. The case resulted in lengthy criminal proceedings and convictions for fraud of a particularly serious nature.

The penalty range for billion-dollar fraud depends on the specific offence committed. Fraud may be punished by up to eight years' imprisonment where the offence is of a particularly serious nature, including where substantial sums are involved. For tax evasion and duty evasion, the penalty may likewise be imprisonment for up to eight years where the offence is extensive or systematically organised.