PESARO – The financiers of the Provincial Command of Pesaro, as part of a complex judicial police operation called “The Carousel has stopped” carried out 3 personal precautionary custody orders against 3 suspects, a precautionary disqualification measure against a fourth suspect and preventive seizures against the same 4 suspects and two companies for an amount of 490,198.62 euros. The orders and the decrees were issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Pesaro, at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) of Bologna.
The activity made it possible to block illicit requests for public funding, disbursed with funds from the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), for over 15 million euros, which would have been allocated by Simest (a company owned by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti). The complex investigative activity, conducted by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Pesaro, was initially undertaken against a limited liability company with formally declared headquarters in Pesarobeneficiary of subsidized loans guaranteed by the State and the European Union attributable to a person who appeared to be a director and sole shareholder.
Aggravated fraud to obtain public funds
The preliminary investigations into the Pesaro company, carried out using advanced investigative techniques, had made it possible to validate the investigative hypothesis of aggravated fraud to obtain public funds. The in-depth investigations also made it possible to identify further similar cases of public benefits requested and partly obtained through similar fraud practices in favor of other companies with registered offices in the provinces of Ravenna and Bolzano. The overall picture thus outlined highlighted, at the expense of the suspects, as many as 15 cases of aggravated fraud involving numerous requests for financing to support Italian companies in their internationalization processin relation to which, thanks to the active collaboration of SIMEST, disbursement was prevented for a sum exceeding 15 million euros.
How it worked: empty boxes and false social communications
The suspects had devised an ingenious criminal modus operandi which had managed to overcome even the checks carried out by the lending bodies, thus creating a “best practice” of fraud: they created or took over joint-stock companies which, in fact, were empty boxes, without any commercial/financial operation, with registered offices and local units that are totally non-existent or attributable to mere corporate domiciliation services, kept alive specifically to defraud the bodies responsible for disbursing public money. The companies used, in fact, had never submitted the required tax returns, some even for over 20 years, but the suspects took care to create at least two completely false financial statements “on paper” which showed revenues in the millions, depositing them electronically to the Companies Register, thus committing the crime of false social communications. They then presented to SIMEST a series of requests for financing – partly also non-repayable – guaranteed by the State and/or with European funds, motivating them with an asserted desire to internationalize the company, develop electronic commerce or for inclusion in foreign markets.
Self-laundering and embezzlement of public funds
Through the communication of the aforementioned false information, which misled the resource manager, they managed to obtain an initial disbursement of the financing which was immediately diverted from the company current accounts through systematic cash withdrawals at automatic teller machines (ATMs) as well as through bank transfers. banking also in favor of other subjects (natural persons and companies) unrelated to the corporate structure, thus committing both the crime of embezzlement of public funds and the crime of self-laundering. The further investigations were decisive in identifying a “technical direction” carried out which is believed to have been carried out by an accountant who actively worked for the “table” creation of the false millionaire balance sheets, for their transmission and deposit to the Companies Registry, to alter both the contracts with suppliers (also non-existent and made available by the same accountant), and the bank statements preparatory to obtaining the subsequent tranches of money, which only the timely intervention of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Financial Police prevented its delivery.
«If the carousel stops I want to see what we do»
The other three suspects are subjects who have always officially lacked income and economic/financial capacity, who do not carry out any actual work, but are constantly looking for new illicit businesses to create, aware of the fact that “if the merry-go-round stops I want to see what we do”, as stated several times by the suspects during the wiretaps, which were crucial for challenging criminal conduct. The operational activities, with particular reference to the searches of the homes, offices and places and appliances of the suspects, were mainly carried out in the province of Salerno. They were conducted with the support of soldiers from the Salerno Group and a canine unit specialized in finding money, “cash dogs”, made available by the Guardia di Finanza Company of Capodichino.
The brilliant operation of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Gdf of Pesaro
The operation, conducted by investigators from the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Pesaro, constitutes brilliant evidence of the efficiency of the investigations concerning the most serious cases of damage to the financial interests of the European Union for which the competence of EPPO, in response to which the prompt recovery of the illicitly received European resources was ensured and the recurrence of further conduct was avoided.
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