Operation 'Scratch'

- The organization fraudulently obtained over 10 million euros by retaining the VAT charged when supplying fuel to petrol stations

- Seven addressed were raided, with 700,000 euros in cash being seized and the organisation’s bank accounts frozen

- The Tax Agency has seized more than one million litres of fuel and confiscated eight properties

April 8, 2013.- The Tax Agency has dismantled an organization dedicated to intermediation in the fuel business that, through the appropriation of VAT charged for the supply of hydrocarbons to gas stations, could have defrauded the Public Treasury of more than 10 million euros.

The investigations carried out by the Tax Agency culminated on 22 March, when customs surveillance agents, with support from other tax agency officials, executed search warrants on seven properties in different locations across the provinces of Girona, Lleida, Barcelona and Castellón, detaining seven individuals, four of whom were arrested and charged with committing a range of tax offences.

The operation, called ‘Raspa’, dates back to an accusation made by the Tax Agency's Special Delegation in Catalonia July of 2012, that it had its origin in previous investigations carried out by Dependences of Inspection and of Aduanas and Excise Duties of this delegation.

As a result of the accusation, the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Economic Crimes of Barcelona filed a complaint resulting in pre-trial proceedings being held at the Court of Instruction No. 28 in Barcelona, with the judge authorising the actions carried out by the Agency.

Modus operandi

Those involved had been operating in the fuel sector through wholesale operations to petrol stations. The fraud scheme, focussing on VAT, consisted of using companies with a very short life span to legally acquire fuels from a bonded warehouse (hydrocarbons wholesaler), on which no tax is charged.

Subsequently, the companies sold the fuel on to petrol stations, charging VAT, but they failed to declare the these sums charged to petrol stations before the tax authorities. To avoid the fraud being detected, those responsible changed the companies used as part of the operation every few months and merely appointed figureheads as those responsible for them.

This misappropriation of VAT allowed them to sell fuel to retailers at lower prices than those offered by players satisfying their obligation to pay the VAT charged to their customers to the tax authorities. To this end, the retailers who acquired fuel at prices clearly below the market price, whether as part of this scheme or other schemes, could be held accountable.

Blocking of bank accounts and seizure of fuel

As part of the operation, 700,000 euros in cash was apprehended, the organisation's bank accounts were frozen, more than a million litres of fuel have been seized in Barcelona, Huelva and Bilbao and eight properties confiscated, all located in Catalonia. Furthermore, abundant documentation was seized and officers confiscated different computers, with their content to be analysed in the coming days.

The Tax Agency deployed 32 civil servants working for Customs Surveillance in Catalonia and Castellón as part of the operation, in addition to a further 17 inspectors, technicians and computer experts. It also received support from civil servants in Andalusia and the Basque Country to immobilise petrol at bonded warehouses.

The organisation dismantled as part of Operation 'Raspa' followed a structure very similar to the one used by the organisation dismantled by the Tax Agency in Andalusia last autumn as part of operation 'Hidro'. In that case, the amount defrauded from the tax authorities was believed to stand at around 9 million euros. Operation 'Hidro' resulted in the arrest of four people charged with alleged tax offences, as well as the confiscation of 15 properties, two recreational boats and over 3.3 million euros held in bank accounts.