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CRIME

Italian ‘paedophile’ priest posed as US manager

An Italian priest who allegedly posed as an American manager online has been arrested as part of an investigation into a global paedophile ring.

Published: 27 May 2015 10:48 CEST
Italian 'paedophile' priest posed as US manager
The Italian priest allegedly posed as an American manager in his communications with others in the suspected paedophile ring.

The 49-year-old priest was arrested in Alassio in Liguria where he had recently moved from the town of Oulx in Turin, Corriere della Sera reported. 

He was arrested along with three others, including two unemployed men aged 58 and 51 and a worker aged 51 in Torrecuso, Livorno and Rome.

The priest, who has not been named, allegedly purchased pornographic photos and videos of pre-adolescents through the paedophile network on the internet.

In some cases the material included children aged just a few years old, mostly from Asia.

The suspects allegedly met over the Russian social network Imgsrc.ru, where they published various photos before moving their communications to other web platforms.

In his communications with the other suspects, the priest allegedly posed as an American manager who was in Italy for work.

On Tuesday Italian police seized several computers, smartphones and devices considered “extremely interesting” to the investigation.

Police are also working to identify those responsible for the videos and the child victims.

The two-year-long investigation, which was conducted by Milan State Police, includes 29 Italians and 233 suspected paedophiles around the world.

Italian police have also shared information relating to suspects to 35 foreign countries through Interpol, the global law enforcement agency.

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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