Fuel tax fraud has been so lucrative for its promoters that it has grown exponentially. And the problem does not lie only in the hole it leaves in the treasury coffers and the accounts of the oil companies. Some businessmen in the sector warn that Foreign organized mafias are flocking to the heat of the illegal business, probably from Italy.
Until now, VAT fraud on hydrocarbons was known among the Treasury inspectors and, evidently, by the main oil companies, with Repsol, Cepsa and BP to the head. But it has been a specific and unexpected event that has put the information focus on the scam. This is the arrest of the ‘achiever’ of the Koldo plot, Victor de Aldama. Together with his partner, Claudio Rivas -both today in prison- managed to defraud more than 180 million euros from the Treasury. They did so by setting up a fiscal and corporate structure to avoid paying VAT.
This Wednesday, just a week later, the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard announced the dismantling of another organization which was allegedly engaged in the same practices: the evasion of VAT in the hydrocarbon trade and the subsequent laundering of illicitly obtained capital. In total, this network would have defrauded the public treasury of 133 million in the years 2020 and 2021.
The mechanics of the fraud basically consist of the following: thanks to the creation of complex business networks, the fraudsters manage to first import hydrocarbons (generally diesel A) and then avoid paying VAT. This operation allows them to sell fuel at a lower price both to intermediaries and to the gas stations themselves, many of whom are aware of the nature of the fraud.
A matter of “national security”
Not even the latest efforts by the Treasury have served to stop the bleeding. At the beginning of the year, via Royal Decree-Law, for example, supplies between retail distributors and between retail distributors and wholesale operators were prohibited. The Tax Agency had detected that this practice facilitated the creation of fraudulent corporate networks.
However, the trickle of fraud persists, hence the suspicion that they have taken root in the oil sector. highly organized foreign mafias. The CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imazrecently denounced in public that this is a matter of “national security”. His counterpart at Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaaralso speaks directly about “racketeering”.
“Not all people always pay their taxes, but this is very different. It’s a top-notch ‘golfada’. These are not businessmen who evade taxes, but rather they are directly putting their hand into the State’s coffers.“he states Francisco de the Tower, tax inspector and author -among others- of the essay Are we all Treasury?. That is the basic reason why, unlike other tax crimes, the judge He sent Aldama directly to prison and other leaders of the last dismantled organizations.
The expert recalls that this type of VAT fraud began to emerge in the EU more than a decade ago with other merchandise: electronic and computer products. Cross-border traffic was used to commit crimes, where merchandise was sometimes out of control.
“These are not businessmen who evade taxes, but rather they are directly putting their hand into the State’s coffers,” recalls Francisco de la Torre.
This operation was later applied to the fuel sector, developed by networks that mix certain sophistication, great business knowledge and international contacts. For example, they use encrypted phonesand have the capacity to activate shell companieswhich are assembled and dismantled in a matter of days. “They are professional criminals”agrees De la Torre.
The illegal business has grown like a snowball. The oil companies calculate that The fraud amounts to 1,200 million euros. The figure is equivalent to nothing less than between 20% and 25% of fuel sales in Spain and affects 10% of the service stations spread throughout the national territory (1,200). Imaz illustrates with an example the size of the fraud: the amount ‘stolen’ from the Treasury is equivalent to budget needed to build up to 12 hospitals. The worst thing is that the VAT fraud is accompanied by an additional fraud, that of biofuelsthat they raise the bill by another 581 million.
That Spain has become an attractive destination for mafias is explained, according to many operators, by its condition as “open country”. It has a set of coastal warehouses for imports and a network (called Exolum) that transports products to any corner of the territory at a competitive price. Some Spanish operators assume that some international mafias may be moving from Italy to the Iberian Peninsula. For a basic reason: the level of fraud was very high in the neighboring country and has decreased drastically, thanks to the fiscal control measures adopted, particularly on VAT.
For example, The Italian Treasury introduced other control mechanisms to ensure that operators paid this tax at the time of extracting the product from the so-called fiscal deposits, something that is not established by the Spanish regulatory framework. This measure acted as the first containment barrier against fraud, which is why it has become one of the main complaints of companies affected by fraud in Spain. The non-existence of this control acts, precisely, as a ‘claim’ for the fraudsters who previously operated in Italy.
#Alert #arrival #mafias #heat #fuel #fraud #firstclass #golfada
