The Supreme Court reduces the prison sentence to seven years for one of the owners of Petromiralles

BarcelonaThe criminal division of the Supreme Court reduced the sentence imposed on Josep Maria Torrens, administrator of the Petromiralles group, for a VAT fraud scheme involving the sale of hydrocarbons. His sentence was reduced from the initial 13 years to 7 years in prison, after the court acquitted him of the money laundering charge for which he had previously been convicted by the National Court.

Despite the reduced sentence, Torrens remains convicted of three tax evasion offenses committed between 2011 and 2013, as well as one count of illegal possession of firearms. The court, like the National Court, found that "tax evasion occurred, as he failed to pay into the public treasury amounts collected as VAT on hydrocarbon sales by artificially inflating the amount of VAT paid."

According to the Supreme Court, there is no conclusive evidence linking Torrens to the movement of funds outside of the country, since the money went to companies belonging to other defendants. The judges argue that the detected return of one million euros could be the repayment of a legitimate loan and not related to money laundering.

The ruling is not as favorable for the rest of the network. The Supreme Court upheld the 12-year prison sentence and €352 million fine for advisor Josep Maria Talarn for three counts of tax fraud and one count of money laundering, as well as the three-year prison sentence and €97 million fine for Antoni Rodríguez Estepa, a key administrator. As for the businessman's brother, Pere Torrens, who was in charge of tasks such as logistics and maintenance of the service stations, he had already been acquitted due to lack of evidence.