The soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza Group of Pistoia have carried out a check against a commercial business dedicated to “buying gold”in order to verify compliance with sector regulations, both in terms of possession of the required authorizations and with regard to the correct fulfillment of the anti-money laundering obligations.
Temporary positive effect
At the start of the check, there was immediate confirmation of the goodness of the process of analysis followed, as it emerged the absence of registration in the Register held and managed by the OAM (Body of Financial Agents and Credit Brokers) which of the lpublic safety license, both mandatory prerequisites to be able to carry out the business of buying and selling gold and precious objects, therefore the premises and the precious objects held there (10 kg of jewelery and various objects in gold and silver, for a total value of approximately 64 thousand euros) were subjected to seizureto prevent the continuation of the crime of abusive exercise of the gold buying activityand the entrepreneur referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Pistoia.
The intervention, moreover, generated an immediate and positive effect conformative. In fact, the holderhaving the possibility of regularizing, albeit retrospectively, his position, has provided with the aforementioned registrations And licensethus eliminating the conditions for keeping the premises and the valuables in seizure (of which, in the meantime, the legitimate origin had been ascertained) and starting to operate again, this time legally, about a month later.
New troubles
While, from a judicial point of view, the Public Prosecutor – at the state of the proceedings and without prejudice to the presumption of innocence, until the effective and definitive ascertainment of responsibility with an irrevocable sentence of conviction – has requested the issuance of a Criminal Decree of conviction, the Fiamme Gialle of Pistoia continued their control operations.
By analyzing all the buying and selling transactions, they were detected multiple, systematic and repeated violations of anti-money laundering legislationconsisting of 243 omissions of customer due diligence and 162 cases of incompleteness in the compilation of the documentation relating to as many purchases of precious items, with consequent reporting to the competent Territorial Accounting Office of the State, for the application of administrative sanctions which may range from a minimum of €6,000 to a maximum of €60,000. These sanctions are in addition to that of €258 already applied by the local Prefecture, upon notification from the Guardia di Finanza, for starting the business without having the license issued by the Police Commissioner, which also entailed the closing of the financial year for another 10 days.
