Spanish Prosecutors Call For Eight Years In Prison For Two Men Involved In €2M Vat Fraud

Spanish Prosecutors Call For Eight Years In Prison For Two Men Involved In €2M Real Estate Vat Fraud.
THE National Court judges will hear from two businessmen today, Monday, June 14, who are accused of defrauding more than €2 million from the Spanish tax office, the Hacienda, with a series of irregular financial transactions between companies in the same corporate network.
In a trial that is expected to continue for a few days, the defendants, Jesús Ignacio Salazar and Francisco Blázquez will sit on the bench accused of alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering and punishable insolvency.
The Prosecutor’s Office is interested in each of them receiving a sentence of eight years in prison, the payment of a fine of more than €12 million and compensation to the Tax Agency, Hacienda, of €2.4 million.
The origin of the alleged irregularities involves a company called Ddal Inversiones, of which Salazar was the sole administrator from 2008 until in 2009. According to court documents, Salazar bought all the shares in the company for €121.
A year later, the other defendant, Francisco Blázquez, became the new sole administrator of this company.
Over the years, Ddal Inversiones carried out real estate transactions that are the subject of the provisional indictment. The alleged criminal activity started back in 2006 when the pair declared purchases for more than €19 million, after that the company has been claiming back the VAT (IVA) for the amount paid.
According to the indictment of the Public Ministry, Salazar and Blázquez, acting in collusion and “with the intention of illicit enrichment,” and requested the Tax Agency to refund €2,514,329.21 of VAT for the aforementioned operations, knowing that at least one of the transactions had failed.
Spanish Prosecutors expose the money trail
The treasury returned a total of €2,466,072 in 2011 to a Ddal Inversiones account from which the next day they transferred almost all the money (€2,150,000) to another company, Quality Prisma, which they had created only days before.
According to the report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, a succession of bank transfers to companies related to the accused began, the most significant being €501,500.54 to Tornado Projects.
None of these two apparent instrumental companies – Quality Prisma and Tornado Proyecto – actually had any economic activity.
Partner and administrator of the company, Blázquez, was apparently said to be withdrawing cash from those accounts, “in the execution of the common plan devised to hide the final destination of money,” say the prosecution.
The trial continues, please check back for the conclusion of the case which is expected this week.

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