On the morning of 7 October, around 700 inspectors from the Judicial Police and 300 from the Tax Authority carried out some 250 searches as part of an operation launched by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The aim is to dismantle a business scheme involving the buying and selling of mobile phones known as the “VAT carousel”, as reported by the Jornal de Notícias.

The same source indicates that the State may have suffered losses of over €100 million, with two further investigations still underway, stemming from information obtained during Operation Admiral, which took place in 2022.

Shell companies

In Operation Hermes, carried out on 7 October, it is estimated that at least 20 people will be arrested, both inside and outside Portugal, in what is considered one of the largest large-scale operations to combat economic crime currently taking place in Portugal.

Searches took place at dozens of companies in Greater Porto and Greater Lisbon, with reports of searches also taking place in other regions of the country, although the focus of the two investigations mentioned is on the Porto region.

The case centres on the fraudulent receipt of VAT through simulated sales of thousands of mobile phones to various companies across Europe. The press also reports that many of the companies that made the purchases were considered ‘shell companies’, set up to disappear from the system and avoid paying VAT.

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