{"id":256085,"date":"2025-07-11T11:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/256085\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T11:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T11:47:15","slug":"eight-arrested-in-spain-in-68-million-euro-sales-tax-fraud-involving-liquor-imports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/256085\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight arrested in Spain in 68-million-euro sales tax fraud involving liquor imports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"v-mdl-ath__fig-a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.diariosur.es\/autor\/mateo-balin-135.html\" title=\"Mateo Bal\u00edn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"v-mdl-ath__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/autor-135-foto-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Mateo Bal\u00edn\"\/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"v-mdl-ath__p v-mdl-ath__p--6\">\nFriday, 11 July 2025, 13:40<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">The Spanish delegation of the European Public Prosecutor&#8217;s Office has ordered the arrest of eight suspected members of a criminal network, including the three ringleaders, for their involvement in a 68-million-euro IVE fraud scheme related to the import of alcohol from several EU countries. <\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">The searches were carried out in 19 locations in Barcelona, Cadiz, Coru\u00f1a, Ibiza, Madrid and Valencia, focusing on business premises, the suspects&#8217; homes, a room in a luxury hotel where one of those arrested was staying and a tax warehouse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">The Guardia Civil seized a yacht, five cars (including three high-end Porsches), 34 luxury watches and 333,085 euros in cash. More than 700,000 euros were frozen in bank accounts and a seizure order was issued for 21 properties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">The crime was the result of an intra-EU sales tax fraud &#8211; a complex criminal scheme that takes advantage of EU rules on cross-border transactions between EU states, as these are exempt from tax. There are also suspicions of money-laundering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">The fraud involves import of large quantities of alcohol from tax warehouses in several EU countries to a Spanish tax warehouse &#8211; a facility where certain excise goods can be stored without immediate payment of tax, as IVA is only due when the products leave the warehouse for commercial distribution or consumption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">Once there, fraudulent intermediaries &#8211; so-called &#8220;missing traders&#8221; &#8211; based in Spain purchase the alcohol and become liable for IVA, but they disappear before fulfilling their tax obligations. Subsequently, the alcohol is sold to a chain of fraudulent companies, using false invoices. Finally, the alcohol undergoes controlled distribution in Spain. The IVA derived from these fictitious operations is never paid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v-p\">It has been estimated that the scheme made an illicit profit of approximately 68 million euros between 2018 and 2024, causing equivalent damage to the Spanish state and the EU budget. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday, 11 July 2025, 13:40 The Spanish delegation of the European Public Prosecutor&#8217;s Office has ordered the arrest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[17449,17341,2000,299,349,475,98381,15459,38388,104,9892],"class_list":{"0":"post-256085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-arrested","9":"tag-eight","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-fraud","13":"tag-imports","14":"tag-involving","15":"tag-liquor","16":"tag-million","17":"tag-spain","18":"tag-vat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114834443178513265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}