15:45
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16:25
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16:25
Day 3
Can We Find Beauty in Tax Fraud?
What do Olaf Scholz, blue ikea bags, Moldova, Deutsche Bank, fine art, and Butyrka Prison have in common?
Join us for a brief stroll through the hidden, shady world of large-scale tax fraud, cross-border financial crime, money laundering, and corruption. We’ll examine both common and lesser-known financial exploits, drawing on revelations from journalists, activists, and investigators over the last few decades.
Can there be beauty in abstraction? And are dividend stripping or VAT fraud diagrams really as dull as they seem? But most importantly: Is defrauding the public of 64 billion euros considered science, engineering, or art? And what does this have to do with you—and why should you care?
Using real-world case studies, we’ll explore how corporations and individuals defraud populations and how these schemes—though sometimes confusing or complex on the surface—rely on surprisingly simple, chained tactics, much like exploits in information systems. We’ll break down the roles of various actors, service providers, fraudsters, and corrupt officials, as well as their playbooks, exploring how these crimes work or how they break and fail.