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The Tax Agency dismantles an international VAT fraud plot in the computer sector

- The organization defrauded at least 5 million euros in two years with a scheme of 'trick' companies and front men.

- 14 detainees, as many searches of homes and companies, and various bank accounts and safe deposit boxes blocked.

 The Tax Agency has dismantled an international organization dedicated to VAT fraud in the IT sector. The plot, which had ramifications in several European countries, would have defrauded at least five million euros between 2011 and 2012 through a scheme of 'trick' companies, 'shell companies' and front men.

After almost a year of investigations, yesterday, under the direction of the investigating court number 5 of Vigo, officials of the Tax Agency developed an extensive device that has allowed the arrest of 14 alleged members of the organization, as well as the blocking various bank accounts and safe deposit boxes of those allegedly involved in the plot.

The operation, called 'Marcianitos', begins with a series of investigations begun in April 2012 into a group of companies dedicated to VAT fraud in the computer sector.

According to the results of the joint investigation developed by Customs Surveillance of Galicia (Pontevedra Operational Unit and Regional Fiscal Unit) and the Regional Financial Inspection Unit of Galicia (ONIF Galicia), in collaboration with the ONIF Central, those responsible for the organization would have created a plot to defraud VAT in the marketing of game consoles and other computer products, creating a complex business structure with companies in Spain, Portugal and Romania.

The dismantled plot operated through companies established in Galicia, Madrid, Catalonia, northern Portugal and Romania, although it supplied distributors throughout Spain.

 The fraud scheme

The merchandise subject to fraud traveled directly from northern Europe (Denmark, Belgium and Holland) to Spanish logistics warehouses which, in turn, sent it to the final marketers. However, to carry out the VAT fraud, a series of companies created in other European countries (Portugal and Romania) and in Spain were involved in this scheme.

The mechanics of the fraud consisted of the products, despite traveling directly to Spain, being invoiced by northern European companies to remote trouts, created in Romania and Portugal. These companies were, nominally, the first recipients of the merchandise, limiting themselves to re-invoicing them to other Spanish fictitious companies, which did not receive the merchandise either and which, in turn, re-invoiced other Spanish companies (shell companies), also created for the occasion. , which finally invoiced the real distribution companies.

In this way, while the merchandise went directly from a company in northern Europe to a Spanish distributor, the invoicing was carried out following a circuit of which, in addition to the sender and receiver of the merchandise, up to three intermediaries (trout companies in Romania and Portugal, trout in Spain and front companies in Spain).

Given that, in accordance with the community VAT regulations, this indirect tax does not have to be paid in intra-community purchases, but it does apply in domestic sales in Spain, Spanish trout would have to pay very high amounts of VAT, as they do not bear VAT in your purchases and have an impact on your sales.

However, these companies manipulated their tax data, creating fictitious input VAT quotas, thus enabling the artificial reduction of the amount payable to the Public Treasury. Therefore, the tax fraud occurred at the time when the Spanish trout, which received an exempt intra-community delivery and charged VAT on the sale to the Spanish shell companies, did not pay those tax amounts to the Treasury. In the later stages of fictitious billing, the companies already paid VAT on purchases and passed it on to sales, like normal companies, but the scheme had already managed to offer the marketer in Spain lower prices than those of its competitors. The fraud committed by the Spanish trout thus served to erode, at the expense of public coffers, free business competition.

Estimates of the amounts defrauded by this organization reach the figures of 3,300,000 euros in 2011 and, at least (given that the operations of the last weeks of the year are still pending to be analyzed), 1,700,000 euros in 2012.

 straw men

In the investigation it has been detected that an important part of this criminal organization was dedicated to the continuous creation of remote trout companies, trout companies in Spain and front companies, for which they contacted people without resources to whom, in exchange for a small remuneration , made themselves appear as administrators of these fictitious companies. Even, in some cases, citizens who were serving prison sentences abroad appeared as administrators of these companies.

Likewise, to give credibility to the fictitious movements of the merchandise – which, while formally bought and sold between companies in various European countries, in reality did not move from the Spanish logistics warehouse to which it had been initially transferred –, a continuous transfer of money between bank accounts, all of them operated through the internet.

 Searches and arrests

In the operation carried out yesterday, 14 arrests and the same number of searches were carried out at the homes of the detainees and at the headquarters of the companies involved, with the following breakdown:

Arrests :

1 in Guadalix (Madrid), 3 in A Estrada (Pontevedra), 8 in Vigo, 1 in Melide (Coruña) and 1 in Arzúa (Coruña).

Records :

- 6 addresses of natural persons: 2 in Vigo, 1 in A Estrada, 2 in Redondela (Pontevedra) and 1 in Madrid.

- 7 addresses of companies related to the plot: 5 in Madrid (Alcorcón, Coslada and Guadalix de la Sierra) and 2 in Catalonia (Lleida and Cerdanyola).

- 1 consultancy in Orense.

 The searches and arrests are accompanied by extensive precautionary measures against the criminal organization, including the blocking of balances in bank accounts and safe deposit boxes of those allegedly involved. Furthermore, a large volume of documentation has been seized in the companies' registries and computers have been seized to, in the coming days, carry out the dumping of the information in the presence of the judicial authority, with a view to carrying out the appropriate analysis.