They invest their life savings in the purchase of two gold bars and entrust them to the same selling company to keep them in its vault. But when they go to collect them they discover that they have disappeared. And three complaints are filed.
The story comes from Racale, in the lower Salento, where a couple of former emigrants reported to the police the theft of two ingots, weighing a total of one kilo.
Convinced by two consultants about the soundness of the investment, both in terms of the high quality of the gold and the reliability of the company, the husband and wife – as reported in the complaint filed with the police – signed the contract and made a bank transfer of 54,000 euros for the purchase of the two ingots, then entrusting them to the same selling company for safekeeping.
When months later, in the face of emerging economic difficulties, they requested what they owned, the bitter discovery arrived: the company had been entrusted to a judicial administrator, as it was involved in an operation for alleged fraud and money laundering through trade of gold and precious metals. And, above all, there was no longer any trace of the gold.
The lawyer: «The people reported have nothing to do with it»
Thelawyer Francesca Contand, defender of the then commercial director of the selling company, sued by the spouses for embezzlement. «Since 23 November 2022, the company has been under judicial administration: the balance sheets were absolutely healthy, but in the last two years the turnover has literally plummeted, to the point that many customers and suppliers have been lost. The savers’ gold, in 2022, was in the vault – concludes Conte – I invite the colleague who assists the couple to verify what the management of the company has been in the last two years. The people reported had nothing to do with the disappearance of the gold.”
