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CRIME

Killer businessman commits suicide in jail

An Italian businessman committed suicide in prison overnight, a month after killing two former employees who demanded €20,000 in overdue wages.

Published: 20 October 2014 11:18 CEST
Killer businessman commits suicide in jail
Gianluca Ciferri hung himself in prison overnight. Prison photo: Shutterstock

Gianluca Ciferri hung himself with bedsheets at the Ascoli Piceno prison, in Italy’s Marche region, Rai News reported.

He was facing double murder charges after shooting Mustafa Nexhmedin, 38, and Avdyli Valdet, 26, on September 15th.

The Kosovan carpenters reportedly went to Ciferri’s home in Fermo to ask for €20,000 they were owed, after failed attempts to claim the wages through their union.

Nexhmedin was shot three times, whereas Valdet was hit twice and was found dying 150 metres away from his coworker. Ciferri denied murder and said he shot the duo in self defence after they threatened him with an axe. 

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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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