hole of one million and 76 thousand

Fraudulent bankruptcy, money laundering and self-laundering: these are the crimes contested as part of an investigation by the Financial police and the Salerno prosecutor’s office, directed by the chief prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelliand which led to two people being placed under house arrest, Angelo Leone and Giuseppe Pagnotta, the latter originally from Cava de’ Tirreni but resident in Spain. Fourteen people were investigated in the provinces of Salerno, Naples and Terni; one million and 76 thousand euros was the sum seized in total from five people believed to be members of the group. The failed company is the Bushop, in fact administered by Leone, an online shop that sells IT products: the company would have forwarded it to Nexi company (financial group that provides services and infrastructures for digital payment to banks, companies, institutions and public administration) as many as 3,319 cancellation requests – for over 890 thousand euros – presented by customers to whom the products purchased on the web had not been delivered. Nexi proceeded to re-credit the sums on the credit cards with which the customers had made the purchases, and then requested a refund – but without obtaining it due to financial insufficiency – from Bushop. According to the investigators, the company diverted customers’ money through multiple bank transfers to the benefit of the recipients of the precautionary measures without there being valid economic reasons behind it. It is in this context that a fundamental role would have been played, precisely, by Pagnotta who, despite not having corporate positions, directed Leone on the recipients of the transfers. In relation to the insolvency of Bushop, the investigative office coordinated by the prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli asked and obtained its judicial liquidation from the court which also led to the charge of the crime of fraudulent documentary, patrimonial and improper bankruptcy.

THE GENESIS

The investigations start from a complaint presented by a Nexi manager. In 2018, Nexi and Bushop had stipulated an agreement which provided for separate points of acceptance of credit card payments for online sales through the Bushop website which, in turn, offered its customers the possibility of obtain discounts on the purchase price in relation to the shipping time chosen by the customer, according to the buy&share mechanism. In practice, the buyer placed the order on the site by choosing from the shipping options and, depending on the choice, he obtained the discount which was greater the further the date of receipt of the product was but, at the same time as the order, he had to place the payment. In case of non-delivery of the goods, he was entitled to a refund. Nexi had therefore made various online POS acceptance points available to the other company and, in the case of purchases by credit card, after having verified the authenticity of the payment, proceeded to credit the sums to the current account of reference of the salesperson. Nexi also placed the portal in the reserved area where refund requests were forwarded to Bushop, then sending a subsequent request to the seller.

At the beginning of the relationship, no anomalies had emerged but, subsequently, Nexi found itself with a series of reimbursement requests (for 890 thousand euros) without negotiating any transaction, exposing itself to economic damage. The financiers’ investigations then led to the identification of all the subjects.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Read the full article at
The morning