Officials of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and agents of the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization involved in the execution of a continuing crime of fraud, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization. According to the investigations, the criminal network allegedly carried out a massive pyramid-type ‘Ponzi’ scam, with epicentre in the town of Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz) and ramifications in Cantabria and Alicante, through the alleged sale of cryptocurrencies, stocks and futures. Among the eleven detained in the context of this operation are the four network officials, one of whom has been imprisoned.
During the investigations, statements have been made to 164 injured, who the organization would have let down more than 5.1 million euros promising high returns since the launch of the scam in 2018, and 44 bank accounts related to the people and companies allegedly involved are being analyzed.
In order to determine the existence of these practices, the researchers took statements from a total of 164 affected persons domiciled in different locations of the national territory.
These statements were of great importance to carry out the exploitation phase of the operation, where the eleven arrests and four entries and searches in the homes and headquarters of companies located in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz), Villafufre (Cantabria) and Elche (Alicante) were carried out, related to the heads of the organization.
In addition to obtaining evidence through the seizure of various documentation, the analysis of bank movements of 44 bank accounts opened by natural and legal persons of the network in a total of 16 entities is being carried out.
Running the organization
Those investigated, despite having no knowledge of the investment market and their companies not being authorized by the National Securities Market Commission as entities authorized to operate in the stock market, took advantage of the commercial structure available to them in the offices of Chiclana de la Frontera and Elche to implement a plan that had the sole objective of obtaining an illicit profit from a massive scam, converting
Some of the detainees continued the scam in its ostentatious modus vivendi, even with the abandonment of the exercise of their professions of origin.
Those responsible for the organization came to boast on social networks of their high standard of living, which included the possession of sports and high-end vehicles.
In the operation of the companies created to develop the scam, the researchers detected two distinct steps. On the one hand, the leaders, responsible for carrying out the administration of the companies, the elaboration of the contracts and the collection and delivery of capital. At a lower level, helping the former, were the ‘acquirers’, intermediaries who benefited by obtaining income in relation to the new customers.
that contributed to the pyramidal structure.
As a result of the investigation, which has not been concluded due to the possibility of locating new victims, it has been possible to discover that the criminal organization had been operating since 2018.