Como: 13,8 million fraud against the State, 19 arrests and seizures by the Guardia di Finanza
Investigations revealed that the company was effectively at the mercy of a real criminal organization dedicated to the commission of bankruptcy crimes, tax fraud and scams.
Como: 13,8 million fraud against the State, 19 arrests and seizures by the Guardia di Finanza
At dawn on November 5th, the Yellow Flames of the Como Provincial Command carried out a precautionary custody order issued by the Court of Monza at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office at that location, directed by the Chief Prosecutor Dr. Claudio Gittardi, towards 19 people, 7 of whom are in prison, 7 under house arrest and 5 subject to the obligation to report to the judicial police – in the context of the investigation called “Paper house” which involved a criminal association dedicated to fraud against the state.
The investigations, coordinated by the PM Dr. Michael Trianni, have begun in 2023 following the investigation of some financial operations considered suspicious carried out by the directors of a Monza company, already involved in criminal proceedings for unsuccessful and fraudulent conduct.
The investigations revealed that the company was actually at the mercy of a real criminal organization dedicated to commission of bankruptcy crimes, tax fraud and scams who had established his base of operations in a warehouse Cinisello Balsamo (MI), leased to a newly established company operating in the telephone sector and registered in the name of a front man.
The observations carried out at the Brianza property allowed the identification of various individuals and the reconstruction of their relational and business networks, allowing the identification of some companies on which the investigations of the financial police of the Como Economic and Financial Police Unit were focused.
Therefore, targeted analyses were started on the company balance sheets, on the current accounts as well as telephone interception activities and at the places where the "business" meetings of the association took place, through which the modus operandi conceived was reconstructed. to obtain state-guaranteed financing from credit institutions through the Guarantee Fund managed by Mediocredito Centrale SpA.
In summary, the fraud scheme typically involved the following: step:
- individuation of the companies through which to request financing, favouring those established a few years ago which had not undergone any checks by the tax authoritiesThese were companies mainly active in the wholesale trade of polymers, paper, cardboard and computer equipment sectors with fictitious offices in Milano, Brescia, Bologna and Venice;
- purchase of shares through trusted nominees, so as to pass under the control of the association;
- falsification of balance sheets, thanks to the contribution of a compliant professional who altered the accounting and balance sheet data by making a false recapitalization appear through completely invented increases in share capital, so that the company could appear solid and able to repay the financing that would have been requested from the banks.
After this accounting makeover, the company in question was ready for submit the application for guaranteed financing, in the amount of 80%, to the chosen Credit Institute, with the complicity of a financial agency that operated in the city of Brescia under a single-mandate regime and that was responsible for preparing the case in order to facilitate the subsequent investigation by the Bank, collecting, for this illicit intermediation, a percentage of the amounts disbursed.
At this stage, the credit institution, in addition to the bureaucratic formalities, could decide to send its own officials to the company headquarters to carry out inspections and site visits. In such cases, the association organised real staging for example, by painting the gate of the warehouse rented for the occasion, placing a name plate on it, bringing machinery to the site and recruiting fake workers to present as company employees. The head of the gang and his right-hand man defined this activity of false representation as a real "movies” to be created for the benefit of any inspecting officials.
Following the investigation, the financing application was presented by the Bank to Mediocredito Centrale SpA which deliberated the admission to the public guarantee, thus allowing the credit institution to disburse the requested sum, crediting it to the current accounts of the companies in the hands of the association.
Immediately after the credit, the obtained supply was used to a minimal extent to pay "fixed" costs (for example the installments of previous loans granted to other dummy companies that had to be honored in order not to prematurely collapse the ongoing scams, along the lines of the Ponzi scheme), while the majority were spending for personal needs (such as the purchase of large-engined cars and campers) or drained in various ways.
In particular, the money was withdrawn in cash and moved by means of "spalloni" or transferred to current accounts in the name of:
- to the associates or their front men;
- to Italian companies (mainly Chinese companies but with accounts in Denmark, Belgium and Germany traceable to associates) and foreign (located in the Czech Republic) for the payment of simulated commercial transactions, covered by false invoices.
By emptying the social bank accounts, it happened that there was not enough liquidity to pay the Bank even the first installments of the loan. So, to gain time and obtain a moratorium on payments, the head of the association He trained his front men for the interview with bank officials by simulating situations of financial difficulty. In one case, before entering the Bank, the boss dictated to his blockhead the line to take with the employee, who would be told that the missed payments of the installments were to be blamed on the suppliers' defaults due to the inconveniences created. from the flood in Modena in 2023.
During the investigations, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Monza implemented an effective investigative coordination with the Public Prosecutor's Office of Brescia, promoting a profitable operational synergy between the PEF Como Unit and the one in Brescia which was proceeding, on a parallel thread, against the same financial agent operating in that capital.
At the end of the investigations, the competent Judge for preliminary investigations at the Court of Monza, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office, ordered:
- the execution of personal precautionary measures against 19 individuals held responsible, in conjunction, for the crimes of criminal association (416 cp) aimed at aggravated fraud to obtain public funds (640 bis cp), Recycling (art. 648 bis cp) and self-laundering (art. 648 ter 1 cp), with the aggravating circumstance provided for the transnational crimes (art. 61 bis cp);
- the direct and equivalent preventive seizure of assets attributable to the suspects up to a maximum amount of 13,8 million euro as a profit from the crimes contested.
The activity described above is part of the broader action of the Guardia di Finanza to combat tax fraud which constitutes a serious obstacle to economic development because they distort competition and the allocation of resources and undermine the relationship of trust between citizens and the State, penalizing social equity.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright La Milano