260 million euros in evaded taxes recovered

PALMA
SPAIN has recovered 260 million euros from 300 tax evaders who had hidden funds in Swiss bank accounts, a Finance Ministry senior official said yesterday.

The ministry was expecting to net at least 130 million euros more in sanctions that will be applied to evaders, Carlos Ocana said.
The ministry was investigating a total of 657 people and two companies in what Ocana described as Spain's biggest ever operation against tax fraud to date.

Those under investigation apparently had more than 3'000 bank accounts in Switzerland.
About 300 of them had voluntarily agreed by September to legalise their tax situation.
Spain discovered the fraud, which had occurred in 2005 and 2006, thanks to information passed on by France in May.
The investigation remains open.