Joint operation of the Tax Agency and National Police

• Eleven detainees, including the four responsible for a network that would have defrauded more than 5.1 million euros from those affected, to whom it had been promising high returns since the launch of the "Ponzi" type scheme in 2018.

• The pyramidal structure had its epicenter in the Cadiz town of Chiclana de la Frontera and branches in Cantabria and Alicante.

• During the investigations, statements have been taken from more than 160 injured parties and 44 bank accounts related to the people and companies allegedly involved in the scam are being analyzed.

April 24, 2024.- Officials of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and agents of the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization involved in the execution of a continuous crime of fraud, money laundering of capital and membership in a criminal organization.

According to the investigations, the criminal network would have carried out a massive "Ponzi" type pyramid scam, with its epicenter in the town of Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz) and branches in Cantabria and Alicante, through the alleged purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies, shares and future. Among the eleven detained in the context of this operation are the four people responsible for the network, one of whom has gone to prison.

During the investigations, statements have been taken from 164 injured parties, from whom the organization allegedly defrauded more than 5.1 million euros by promising high returns since the scam was launched in 2018, and 44 bank accounts related to the people are being analyzed. and companies allegedly involved.

In order to determine the existence of these practices, the researchers took statements from a total of 164 affected people residing in different locations in the national territory.

These statements were of great importance to subsequently carry out the exploitation phase of the operation, where eleven arrests and four entries and searches were carried out at homes and corporate headquarters of companies located in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz), Villafufre (Cantabria) and Elche (Alicante), related to the top managers of the organization.

In addition to obtaining evidentiary elements through the seizure of various documentation, the bank transactions of 44 bank accounts opened by individuals and legal entities in the network in a total of 16 entities are being analyzed.

Operation of the organization

Those investigated, despite lacking knowledge of the investment market and their companies not being authorized by the National Securities Market Commission as entities authorized to operate in the securities market, took advantage of the commercial structure that they had at their disposal in the offices in Chiclana de la Frontera and Elche to launch a plan whose sole objective was to obtain an illicit benefit from a massive scam, with some of the detainees turning the continued scam into their ostentatious modus vivendi, even with the abandonment of the exercise of their professions of origin.

Those responsible for the organization even boasted on social networks about their high standard of living, which included the possession of sports and high-end vehicles.

In the operation of the companies created to develop the scam, the researchers detected two different levels. On the one hand, the leaders, in charge of carrying out the administration of the companies, the preparation of contracts and the collection and delivery of capital. At a lower level, carrying out relief work for the former, were the 'obtainers', intermediaries who benefited by obtaining profits in relation to the new clients they contributed to the pyramid structure.

As a result of the investigation, which has not been concluded due to the possibility of locating new victims, it has been discovered that the criminal organization had been operating since 2018.