An international financial network that channelled more than €418 million through the fictitious trading of carbon dioxide emission allowances counted among its key components a shipping agency and chartering company based in the Gran Canaria capital. The assessments issued by Spanish Tax Agency inspectors against the network confirmed a tax loss of €57.3 million to the public coffers in unpaid value-added tax (VAT) in the case of one of the companies identified as the ‘Israeli Group’.
The connection with the Port of Las Palmas was established through Blue Marlin Chartering S.L., based on Graciliano Alfonso Street in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. On paper, the company was engaged in chartering, shipping agency and maritime services. According to the court ruling issued this September and obtained by this newspaper, the company was used to issue opaque invoices worth €19,119,120 to the shell company Técnicas De Aprovechamiento de la Radiación Solar S.L. (Teaproraso).
The Tax Inspectorate established that the company’s actual control and management lay with its top executive, who formalised the transfer of sole management of the company to his driver in order to conceal authorship and the entity’s effective management. In these transactions, the Canary Islands shipping agency charged €2,049,664 in VAT. The tax was inapplicable and unworkable in the actual operation because of the peculiarities of the islands’ tax system, where IGIC applies, as well as the design of the fraud itself. To shield the true managers from liability, the firm’s executive leadership—exercised behind the scenes by the executive—was formally transferred to his own driver, who was listed in the register as sole administrator.
Nougat and Trout
The fraud was structured around the “missing trader” model, involving so-called “trout” companies. These entities purchased large quantities of emission allowances from foreign operators without paying VAT under the reverse-charge mechanism. They then sold the allowances to shell companies—such as the one receiving the invoices from Las Palmas—charging the applicable tax.
The VAT collected by the “trout” companies was not paid to the tax authorities. Instead, it was diverted to accounts in tax havens and third countries, including Hong Kong, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and the Czech Republic. Finally, the shell companies sold the securities to major energy companies and brokers—such as Sendeco2, Gas Natural and CM Capital Markets—which legitimately sought refunds or deductions for VAT that had never entered the public coffers.
Naviera Zabat
The Israeli Group, directly linked to the Canary Islands market, comprised the Gran Canaria-based Blue Marlin Chartering S.L., together with Naviera Zabat S.A., Tu Stock en el Mundo S.L. and the non-resident entity Mourinio Ltd. This network invoiced a total of €17,653,285 to the Sendeco2 trading platform, resulting in tax fraud of €2,803,014.22 against the public coffers. Meanwhile, the Pakistani Group carried out its fraudulent operations through the “trout” companies Global Green Energies and Espinel Levantina.
Through these companies, the network moved a business volume of €92,582,930.49 in transactions directed at Sendeco2 and CM Capital Markets, causing a tax loss of €12,737,543.94 through unpaid VAT. In the case of English Group I, the operation was structured through Energías Ecológicas Renovables S.L., acting as a shell company. This branch channelled a total of €144,205,171.77 in the trading of emission allowances, completing a fraud against the public coffers amounting to €19,818,620.92 in unpaid tax.
The division that accounted for the largest volume of business in the entire case was the French Group, operating through a network of companies in La Jonquera and various locations in Catalonia. This bloc carried out transactions totalling €163,931,356.40 and generated the largest tax shortfall in the network, set at €22,028,000. Finally, English Group II used the companies Saman Soluciones and Meridiano Zero Cellular as shell intermediaries in dealings with distributor Gas Natural SGD. The network’s main purpose was the laundering and diversion of funds, transferring more than €30 million through international banking operations to overseas accounts held in the names of firms such as Armada Capital Inc and Eucalyptus Worldwide.
The article “Tax authorities dismantle €400 million fraud involving operations at the Port of Las Palmas” was first published on canarymaritime.com.
