The Tax Agency has dismantled a VAT fraud network in the hydrocarbon sector, with a presence throughout the national territory and a structure made up of 38 companies, accused of fraud of more than 300 million euros in 2024.
Thus, as the entity indicated in a press release this Friday, it is one of the two largest VAT regimes dismantled to date in Spain in this sector.
Concretely, during the 18 searches carried out in twelve localities in seven provinces, a large number of properties, vehicles, boats, hundreds of bank accounts, crypto assets, a large volume of cash, works of art, luxury items and metals of high economic value were seized.
Five arrested
In addition, as part of this operation, called “Pamplinas Stars”, and in which more than 160 officials of the Public Treasury participated, five people considered responsible for the criminal organization were arrested, including one of its leaders, already in prison, for alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, criminal organization and money laundering.
The investigation into this “macro-plot” of fraud begins in mid-2024, when the Tax Agency begins to analyze the possible fraud of a wholesaler who began selling large quantities of hydrocarbons at the end of 2023.
At that time, the regulatory change that came into force in January 2025 had not yet taken place, under which companies registered in the Register of Hydrocarbon Extractors, Redef, must already submit monthly declarations and be in the Immediate Information system, the SII. Thus, the operator presented quarterly declarations and was only required to identify its customers and suppliers to the tax administration on an annual basis.
Instrumental companies
Thus, this first operator would have based its fraudulent scheme on the quarterly declaration of accumulated VAT quotas much lower than the sales it made, and input VAT quotas much higher than the actual quotas. The Agency’s investigation revealed that the operator would have operated through instrumental companies which would be those which would formally invoice the final recipients for the product extracted by the first.
Once the Tax Agency deregistered this first fraudulent operator from Redef in mid-2024, the fraudulent activity continues to unfold with a second operator, who begins selling large quantities of hydrocarbons in October 2024, but in just one month the Agency deregistered him as well. Over this period, between October and November, this second operator allegedly defrauded 123 million euros, according to investigators.
Finally, in mid-December 2024, the fraudulent activity of a third-party operator began who, until then, sold hydrocarbons within a tax warehouse (before the payment of the special tax and VAT corresponded) to other operators. Five days after the start of its fraudulent activity, the Agency also dismissed this Redef operator.
Disqualification of three operators
The three operators being disqualified from the hydrocarbon wholesaler activity and therefore already expelled from the market, the investigations are continuing, directed by the Court of Instruction number 4 of the National Court and under the coordination of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Finally, the Tax Administration discovered a “vast and complex” structure made up of up to 38 companies and designed with a dual purpose: to serve fraud in VAT invoiced and not paid to public coffers, and to transfer the funds obtained through fraud abroad to try to prevent their traceability.
Part of the funds obtained by the organization, which also had a vast network of nominees and the collaboration of legal advisors for its criminal activity, was used to acquire companies registered with Redef, in order to continue the fraud.
In this sense, the entity ended up explaining that this mechanism allowed a “rapid increase” in low-price sales thanks to VAT fraud and an expansion of operations throughout the national territory, so that the impact of fraud on the public treasury and on competition in the sector was concentrated in a short period of time for the efficient functioning of the organization.
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