Operation Hermes: 700 judicial police inspectors detain dozens in €100 million VAT fraud
The judicial police launched one of the year's largest operations against the "VAT carousel" scheme, with more than twenty arrests and 250 searches across the country.
Operation Hermes dismantles tax fraud scheme exceeding 100 million euros
The Judicial Police deployed more than 700 inspectors on the ground on Wednesday morning in a large-scale operation against economic crime, with dozens of arrests expected for criminal association, tax fraud and money laundering, CNN Portugal reports exclusively. The scheme in question — known as the "VAT carousel" — is believed to have caused damage to the public purse exceeding 100 million euros.
In addition to the 700 judicial police inspectors, 300 officials from the Tax Authority are participating in the operation, conducting searches at companies, residences and law offices across the country from north to south. Of the 250 planned search operations, 150 take place at different companies. The investigation is overseen at the European Public Prosecutor's Office by prosecutor José Ranito.
Two inquiries are involved with their epicentre in Porto and ramifications to several companies in the greater Lisbon area. The schemes are based on non-payment of VAT or undue receipt of refunds in simulated sales of thousands of mobile telephone devices between different companies in the European Union — some of them shell companies created exclusively for this purpose.
Both cases have their origin in information gathered during Operation Admiral in 2022, in which businessman Max Cardoso and his wife, former television presenter Ana Lúcia Matos, were among those arrested. In that investigation, the damage to the Portuguese State was estimated at 80 million euros, with losses in the hundreds of millions at European level. Max Cardoso was sentenced in 2025 to seven and a half years in prison.
Operation Hermes also involves simultaneous searches and arrests in other Member States whose public purses were similarly damaged by the same criminal association. In Portugal, the detained accused will be presented to the Criminal Investigation Court of Porto.
Source: CNN Portugal