The Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Sondrio will celebrate today the 250th anniversary of its Foundation with a ceremony in Bormio at the Congress Hall, in the presence of the Undersecretary of State for Economy and Finance, the Honorable Federico Freni and the highest institutional authorities of the province.
A grateful thought will go first of all to the three boys of the Alpine Rescue of the Guardia di Finanza – Corporal Luca Piani, Financier Simone Giacomelli and Financier Alessandro Pozzi – who recently passed away due to a tragic event and who lost their lives while training with professionalism and passion to the best of themselves to always be at the service of everyone.
The activity
Born as a customs police, the Guardia di Finanza has been able to grow and renew itself over time, becoming a modern economic and financial police force committed to combating the many forms of illegality by combining the traditional fight against tax evasion, tax fraud and smuggling with the fight against illicit diversion of national and community public funding and the penetration of criminal organizations into the productive fabric and financial circuits, including international ones, in support of the sustainable and long-lasting growth path of the country’s economy.
In this context, the institutional mission that characterizes the Guardia di Finanza in this period of time is twofold. On the one hand, acting on the level of prevention with the timely identification of the symptomatic elements of the commission of economic and financial crimes, preventing the commission of further violations and encouraging a higher tax compliance. On the other hand, intervene to repress the most virulent and insidious expressions of economic-financial illegality in synergy with the bodies of ordinary, European and accounting justice, attacking both the operating model and the ability to accumulate illicit capital using the powers and skills recognized by the Corps and leveraging all the technological equipment in use by the Departments.
Faced with these prospects, the Guardia di Finanza of Sondrio has achieved positive results in this last period in the three strategic objectives of combating tax evasion, combating crimes relating to public spending, combating economic and financial crime without neglecting the contribution to security of the country.
In 2023 and the first five months of 2024, the financial police of the Provincial Command of Sondrio carried out 322 inspections and 238 investigations delegated by the ordinary and accounting judiciary to combat economic and financial crime and the infiltration of crime into the economy: an “all-round” commitment to protect families and businesses, destined to intensify further to ensure the correct allocation of public resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Tax evasion
The inspection activities made it possible to identify a total of 74 tax evaders, i.e. operators of business or self-employment activities completely unknown to the tax authorities who hid taxable income of over 35.5 million euros and VAT and for over 6.3 million euros . 47 employers were reported for having employed 247 “illegal” or irregular workers, mainly in the catering, hotel and logistics sectors. Furthermore, 13 cases of international tax evasion were discovered, mainly attributable to foreign-owned companies and fictitious tax residences with over 4.8 million euros recovered in taxation.
There are 58 subjects reported for tax crimes. The value of the assets seized or proposed for seizure as profit from tax evasion and fraud is approximately 18 million euros. Following investigations delegated by the Judicial Authority, fraud amounting to over 800 thousand euros was ascertained in relation to tax credits with a high fiscal risk. The amount of assets constituting profits from tax evasion and tax fraud proposed for seizure is over 16 million euros while over 2 million euros are those seized. In the field of excise duties, 21 interventions were carried out which allowed the seizure of 342 kg of fuel and 110 liters of alcohol.
Customs police
The customs police activity took the form of over 530 checks at the border crossings and in the territory of the province with the notification of 705 violations, the reporting of 19 people for smuggling, the seizure of over 369 products of various types of goods and 40 kg of TLE; Furthermore, 16 interventions were carried out to protect monopoly and betting, 2 of which concluded with the finding of violations involving a total of 30 people.
Protection of public spending
The activity of the Financial Police in the sector of the protection of public spending is aimed at supervising the correct use of European Union and national resources, for the implementation of interventions to support businesses and families.
The directives given aim, as a priority, to monitor projects and investments financed with resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In this context, 45 interventions were carried out aimed at verifying the entitlement of citizens and businesses to tax credits, contributions and financing, as well as the correct execution of the works and services subject to public tenders, for 4.35 million euros.
On the national public spending front, in the same period, 97 interventions were carried out, of which 53 related to citizenship income.
The action to combat fraud against EU resources has led overall to the ascertainment of unduly received contributions amounting to 1 million euros, while those relating to national funding, social security and welfare spending amount to over 1 million euros.
As part of the collaboration with the judicial authority – criminal and accounting – 11 investigations were carried out on the subject of public spending, the outcome of which was to report 14 people responsible to the Court of Auditors, with the ascertainment of treasury damages amounting to 2.5 million. of Euro.
The action of the Corps in combating corruption phenomena and other crimes against the Public Administration, carried out by leveraging the particular investigative powers that characterize the economic-financial police and developing structured investigations of a technical, financial and patrimonial nature, aimed at reconstructing the criminal regimes and the role of the subjects involved, led to the denunciation of 44 people.
Economic and financial crime
In the fight against organized and economic-financial crime, the Corps’ action aims to block criminal infiltration into the legal economy and, at the same time, to protect the free market and respect for the rules of healthy competition.
In the field of money laundering and self-laundering, 8 interventions were carried out which led to the reporting of 12 people for a total of 1.8 million euros in confirmed money laundering. 135 reports of suspicious transactions were developed, over 800 checks were carried out regarding cross-border movement of currency and money transfer/buying of gold.
There were 31 subjects subjected to asset assessments in application of the anti-mafia legislation. 905 checks were carried out following requests received from the Prefects of the Republic, most of which referred to checks functional to the release of anti-mafia documentation.
The fight against illicit trafficking, in general, is also ensured within the Service “117”, the subject of recent interventions in the operational, training and technical-logistic fields, aimed at increasing the operational readiness and effectiveness of intervention of patrols in the area, in response to citizen reports.
To protect the goods and services market, the operational departments carried out 129 interventions, seizing over 89,000 counterfeit or unsafe industrial products with the reporting of 22 managers and the reporting of a further 74 people for administrative purposes.
Rescue and safety
The interventions carried out by the 3 Alpine Rescue Stations of the Valtellina Financial Police (SAGF) were 844 and allowed 341 people to be brought to safety. 22 investigative delegations delegated by the Judicial Authority to the specialist component in the context of judicial police activities carried out at high altitude.
The assistance provided to the other police forces for the maintenance of public order and security was guaranteed through the execution of over 2000 shifts of territory and border control service, with the carrying out of 97 interventions within the framework of the public utility service “117”.
