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CRIME

Financial police chief faces corruption probe

Investigators on Wednesday began searching the offices of the second-highest chief of Italy’s financial police as part of a probe into alleged corruption within the force that has also led to the arrest of a police commander.

Published: 12 June 2014 16:57 CEST
Financial police chief faces corruption probe
On Wednesday morning police searched General Vito Bardi's offices at the financial police's headquarters in Rome. Photo: Guardia di Finanza

General Vito Bardi, the financial police's (Guardia di Finanza) second in command, was on Wednesday at the centre of a criminal investigation into alleged corruption within the law enforcement agency.

On Wednesday morning police searched the general’s offices at the Financial Guard’s headquarters in Rome. Earlier today Fabio Massimo Mendella, a financial police commander in the western city of Livorno, was arrested as part of the investigation.

According to Corriere della Sera, Mendella is accused of having received €1 million for rigging tax audits for companies while working for the force in Naples.

A Neapolitan accountant, Pietro de Riu, has also been arrested for taking bribes from people who wanted to avoid tax inspections from Mendella.

Bardi is suspected of having received part of this sum as well as presents and favours.

The investigation is being conducted by the public prosecutor’s office in Naples.

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CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Published: 8 April 2024 17:05 CEST
Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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