Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Italian police investigate banks in diamond fraud case

Celebrities were among those hit by a diamond scam involving four of Italy's biggest banks.

Published: 20 February 2019 10:32 CET
Italian police investigate banks in diamond fraud case
Italian police cars. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Italian financial police have seized more than 700 million euros as part of a fraud probe into diamond sales involving the country's top four banks, local media reports.

Some 84 million euros were seized from Banco BPM and its subsidiary Banca Aletti, along with 35.5 million euros from Monte dei Paschi, 32 million euros from UniCredit and 11 million euros from Intesa Sanpaolo, Corriere della Sera reported.

Two diamond brokers, Intermarket Diamond Business (IDB) and Diamond Private Investment (DPI), were under investigation for allegedly using the banks to sell the cut stones for more than they were worth.

The seizure order concerned 253 million euros from DPI and 328 million euros from IDB.

The probe was launched after an Italian investigative programme in 2016 discovered that stones sold by IDP and DPI were being offered for twice the sum of comparable gems on the international diamond market listing Rapaport, the Corriere said.

The banks were making a considerable commission from presenting clients to diamond brokers, it said, adding that among those reportedly hit by the scam were celebrities including Italian singer Vasco Rossi.

Italian singer Vasco Rossi was among those hit by the scam. Photo: AFP

READ ALSO: Scam artist kidnapped with nearly €2 million of fake money at Hilton in Milan

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS