SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 15 Aug. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Civil Guard and the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), within the framework of the ‘Isla Sorna’ operation carried out in Tenerife, have arrested four people, of Russian and Spanish nationality, for allegedly evading their tax and fiscal obligations before the Spanish public finances, since they are attributed the crimes of money laundering, against public finances, unfair administration, false documentation and identity theft.
The investigation carried out, which began at the beginning of 2018, has confirmed that these people used tax-accounting engineering, foreign investment companies and funds, shell companies and trust offices to finance themselves with funds originating in Russia that they sent to Tenerife through tax havens and territories with zero taxation, avoiding all fiscal and tax responsibility, as reported by the Civil Guard in a press release.
Specifically, the Civil Guard initiated the investigation after detecting that a Spanish company had previously been financing itself through private loans without raising it to public and granted by citizens of Russian origin.
In addition, previously, a few months earlier, this company had bought the land of an old nightclub located in Tenerife to convert it into a luxury shopping center.
The joint development of the investigation carried out by the Civil Guard and the State Agency for Tax Administration (AEAT) has revealed that this Spanish company had to resort to investment funds and foreign companies, in order to start its reconversion project. Russian capital and money of dubious origin to obtain the necessary financing.
Specifically, they used financing sources through nationalized companies in Australia, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands, the latter place where one of the lender companies was linked to a trusteeship, associated with a multitude of shell companies of the type ‘ vehicular’.
Through the use of these shell companies, they would have obtained mortgage loans for amounts greater than 23 million euros, some with interest of up to 25 percent.
In this way, the economic analysis carried out to date has been able to determine the use of a circuit to introduce funds in Spain, specifically in Tenerife, compatible with the phases of money laundering in accordance with the criteria established by the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering Capitals.
And it is that thanks to the practice of a system of “tax engineering” they were able to later become these operations to ultimately avoid paying taxes to the tax administration.
This economic-financial and fiscal investigation has made it possible to clarify a business network that “for years would have avoided all fiscal and tax responsibility” to the detriment of the Public Treasury.
RECORDS
In total, six searches have been carried out, four of them in the homes of those under investigation and two in commercial companies in Tenerife, with the possibility of intervening numerous documents of an economic nature (mainly accounting and billing), cash, as well as telephone, computer and electronics.
Likewise, the Court that directs the investigation has agreed to the preventive annotation of blocking and disposition of movable and immovable property, for about 45 million euros, to guarantee possible civil and pecuniary responsibilities.
The operation has been developed jointly by the Information Group of the Civil Guard Command of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), having been directed by the Investigating Court Number 3 of Arona in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
