TREVISO – A colossal fraud has rocked Italy’s construction and tax relief industry, involving a Treviso-based company that duped around 2,000 people residents in Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. These people were interested in benefiting from the 110% superbonus, a measure introduced by the Relaunch Decree to incentivize the energy requalification of buildings.
Fraud orchestrated by a “general contractor”
Acting under the guise of a “general contractor”, the company promised to manage all the aspects necessary to access not only the superbonus but also other tax incentives such as the ecobonus, the facade bonus, and the sismabonus. The service “turnkeyo” proposed included the management of bureaucratic procedures, the execution of the works and the transfer of tax credits. However, once payments for the feasibility studies have been received, often ranging between 300 and 2,500 euros per client, services were being abandoned, leaving consumers without the promised benefits.
Deceptive practices and the consequences for customers
The company imposed the transfer of the tax credit as the only form of payment, sustainable only after the work was completed. This practice hid a detail: advance payments would not be refunded until the work was completed, putting customers who had already invested significant sums in financial difficulty.
Intervention by the Financial Police and discovery of the scam
The investigations conducted by the financiers of the Treviso Group, through the interrogation of approximately 350 customers and numerous searches, revealed that the company had not actually started any redevelopment work. The total amount of the scams was estimated at approximately 2 million euros. Following the investigations, the two directors who led the company during the offending period were reported for fraud and the company received severe sanctions from the Competition and Markets Authority. Currently, the company is in a state of insolvency aggravated by illicit management.
Repercussions and protective measures
The timely action of the Guardia di Finanza underlined the importance of vigilance towards commercial practices in the construction sector, especially when significant tax incentives are at stake. The intervention not only safeguarded the interests of defrauded consumers but also helped preserve the integrity of state incentive programs, essential for the energy and seismic transition of the Italian real estate stock.
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