The Tax Agency has dismantled a macro VAT fraud scheme in the hydrocarbons sector with a nationwide presence and a structure made up of 38 companies, which is attributed with a fraud of more than 300 million euros during the year 2024.
As reported by the Agency on Friday, this is one of the two largest VAT fraud schemes dismantled to date in Spain in this strategic sector.
As part of the operation, called ‘Pamplinas Stars’, 18 searches have been carried out in twelve locations in seven provinces, in which real estate, vehicles, boats, hundreds of bank accounts, crypto-assets, large amounts of cash, works of art, luxury items and metals of high economic value have been seized.
Five arrested, including one of the organization’s leaders
The operation involved the participation of more than 160 officials from the Tax Agency and resulted in the arrest of five people, considered to be responsible for the criminal organization. Among them is one of its leaders, who was already in prison. The detainees are charged with crimes against the Public Treasury, criminal organization and money laundering.
The investigation began in mid-2024, when the Tax Agency began to analyze the activity of a wholesale operator that had started selling large quantities of hydrocarbons at the end of 2023.
At that time, the regulatory modification that, as of January 2025, requires companies registered in the Registry of Hydrocarbon Extractors (Redef) to file monthly returns and to be integrated into the Immediate Information Supply (SII) system , had not yet entered into force. Until then, these companies filed quarterly returns and were only required to identify customers and suppliers on an annual basis.
Instrumental companies and chain operators
According to the investigation, the first fraudulent operator declared accrued VAT quotas much lower than its actual sales and input VAT quotas much higher, relying on a network of instrumental companies that formally invoiced the final recipients for the extracted product.
After being removed from the Redef in mid-2024, the fraudulent activity continued through a second operator, which began selling hydrocarbons in October 2024. In just one month, before it was also removed from the register, it would have defrauded 123 million euros.
Subsequently, in mid-December 2024, a third operator began a new phase of fraudulent activity, although it was removed from Redef only five days after the start of these operations.
A structure designed to defraud and hide funds
Once the three operators were disqualified and expelled from the market, the investigations continued under the direction of the Central Court of Instruction number 4 of the Audiencia Nacional, in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
The Tax Agency finally uncovered a complex structure made up of up to 38 companies, designed with a dual purpose: to defraud the VAT charged and not paid into the public coffers and to move the funds abroad to make them difficult to trace.
The organization also had a network of front men and the collaboration of legal advisors, and used part of the money obtained to acquire new companies registered in the Redef to continue the fraud.
According to the Tax Agency, this system allowed a rapid increase in sales at low prices, an expansion throughout the national territory and a serious impact on both the Treasury and competition in the sector, concentrated in very short periods of effective activity.
