Mafia Style Gang Smashed In Italy After Stealing Almost Half A Billion Euros In State Aid For COVID
Italian fraud cops have smashed a massive con involving false tax credits worth half a billion euros issued as part of support measures for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Financiers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) of Rimini, coordinated by the Rimini Public Prosecutor’s Office, joined up with an army of 200 other specialist investigators for the raid in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna on 31st January.
At the same time, raids were carried out in the regions of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Lazio, Lombardy, Marche, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino and Veneto.
Eight people were arrested and imprisoned, while four remain under house arrest.
The suspects are believed to be involved in a criminal organisation based in the city of Rimini that then spread through the entire country, creating a network and documentation to allow fake claims for EUR 440 million (GBP 367 million) in tax credits, one of the measures introduced among the support schemes offered by the Italian government to help companies and traders hit by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Eighty searches are underway and court orders have been made for the seizure of false credits, assets and corporate structures, on suspicion of fraud.
Nine of the arrested suspects are on benefits and three had priors with the police for mafia-type criminal association.
The criminal association, according to the police, involved around 56 people, of which 22 were the front men, and the main organisers comprised a group of 12, including entrepreneurs and accountants.
The investigation began after the authorities spotted irregularities while examining documents regarding a “transfer of tax credits” carried out by another company, currently involved in a separate criminal proceedings for fraudulent bankruptcy claims.
The authorities believe that the gang identified companies in serious economic difficulty that were then used to claim undue tax credits. In each case, the gang allegedly installed their own representatives in the company in order to carry out the negotiations using the Revenue Agency’s website.
The investigation is ongoing.