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CRIME

American woman found dead in Florence

Police in Florence have opened a murder investigation after a 35-year-old American woman was found dead in her apartment in the Tuscan city.

Published: 11 January 2016 08:45 CET
American woman found dead in Florence
Ashley Olsen's body was found in her apartment in the Oltrarno area of Florence. Photo: Todd Martin

The body of Ashley Olsen, an artist from Florida, was found by her boyfriend, a fellow artist, and the property’s owner, on Saturday morning, Corriere reported.

Olsen’s boyfriend was concerned because he hadn’t heard from her for a few days, and so asked her landlord to accompany him to the apartment in the Oltrarno area to check on her.

Her body was found with bruises to the neck and scratches, Corriere reported. An autopsy will be carried out on Monday.

Police have questioned Olsen’s boyfriend and friends within the expat community, but say there is no suspect yet.
 

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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