Maxi seizure by soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza of Brescia who, as part of an investigation into the use of tax credits relating to the “Façade Bonus”, “Rental Bonus” and “Earthquake Bonus”, seized over 328 million euros of credits deemed false. A precautionary interdictory measure was also issued, and several searches were carried out in offices and company headquarters in Lombardy and Veneto and on accountants in the provinces of Brescia, Ferrara and Barletta-Andria-Trani.
The investigations conducted by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Brescia arose from a report from the Revenue Agency which, on the basis of cross-checks, identified a number of people who had entered tax credits of dubious legitimacy. The GdF of Brescia, by developing the analysis of risk factors – in particular, the absence of a corporate structure on the part of the contractors or in any case the absence of operational construction sites – has reconstructed a network which, throughout the national territory, self-certifies works susceptible to tax refund, in reality completely non-existent. Starting from a Brescia company, the financiers brought to light hypotheses of crime, such as aggravated fraud to obtain public funds, money laundering and self-laundering of illicit proceeds.
In particular, the suspect hit by the interdictory measure would have generated false tax credits by transferring them to compliant legal entities, some of which can be traced back to him, without an entrepreneurial organizational structure. These companies, in turn, would have transferred the false credits to multiple operators, allowing them to use them to offset tax debts or monetize them with financial intermediaries, in relation to construction works on non-existent real estate.
