The classic image of the ‘stamp scam’ is now a thing of the past. The digital world has paved the way for organised economic crime, and today its primary target is businesses: they hold cash reserves, process payments on a daily basis, work with dozens of suppliers and rely on employees who, with a single […]

The First Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in its judgment of 15 October 2026 (Case C-70/25, Tukowiecka), has clarified a question of great interest to consumers who fall victim to phishing: whether a bank may refuse to refund an unauthorised transaction immediately on the ground that the customer acted […]

After years of proceedings before the Court of Audit, the former mayor finally receives the call from his lawyer. The news is not good: he has been ordered to repay €3.2 million to the Town Council, plus interest. Is this the end of the road? What can he do to challenge that judgment? 1. What […]

A Town Council receives a grant to build a municipal building. The works are certified as completed, although only part of them has been carried out, and no trace of the remaining funds can be found in the municipal accounts. The Administration that awarded the grant ends up demanding repayment of the difference. Years later, […]

On 28th July 2010, the Court of Auditors declared the existence of an alcance of more than €1.4 million in the funds of Marbella Town Council and ordered its repayment, holding the first deputy mayor, the councillor for Finance and the councillor for Financial Control directly liable in accounting terms[1]. However, before reaching the adjudicatory […]

Let us imagine that a mayor authorizes payments to suppliers without documentary justification, that a civil servant diverts funds earmarked for a grant, or that a public-sector manager cannot explain a shortfall in the accounts of an autonomous agency. Before whom must they answer? Attention is usually directed to the Criminal Code. However, in the […]

Organic Law (LO) 14/2022 introduced surprising innovations to the field of Spanish Criminal Law. Among them, the introduction of Article 438 bis of the Criminal Code stood out. Continuing from our previous publication, in which we briefly addressed the offence of illicit enrichment, on this occasion Ayuela Jiménez shall analyse in greater detail the offence […]

Let us suppose that a person holds a collection of jewellery valued at more than one million euros, and that person has no documentation evidencing its origin or acquisition. Could such undocumented ownership constitute a criminal offence? The answer, as is often the case in Criminal Law, depends. Unexplained wealth may open an investigation, but […]

The money laundering offence, set out in Articles 301 to 304 of the Criminal Code, targets conduct designed to channel criminally derived assets into the lawful economy by concealing or disguising their illicit origin. The basic penalty ranges from six months’ to six years’ imprisonment, together with a fine of up to three times the […]

Picture the scene: Madrid, an auction house where a buyer examines a screen print attributed to a great artist, bids on it, wins and takes it home. He hangs the painting. He contemplates it for years, with the satisfaction of owning a work of international significance. Until one day someone tells him the harsh truth: […]