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Five Star founder Beppe Grillo’s son investigated in gang rape case

The son of the comedian and activist Beppe Grillo has been accused of raping a 19-year-old Scandinavian woman at his father's villa.

Published: 6 September 2019 13:30 CEST
Five Star founder Beppe Grillo’s son investigated in gang rape case
The rape allegedly took place at the family's villa in Sardinia. Photo: Depositphotos

The son of Italian stand-up comedian and Eurosceptic political campaigner Beppe Grillo, who founded the Five Star Movement (M5S) political party, is being investigated along with three friends for gang rape, Italian media reported on Friday.

Ciro Grillo, 19, and three friends are accused of raping a 19-year-old woman, described as a “Scandinavian model”, at his father's summer villa in Sardinia’s Costa Smerelda after night out in a disco, La Stampa reported.

The four men, reportedly “the children of Genoan entrepreneurs, doctors and professionals”, insist the sexual relations were consensual, the report said, adding that a video of the incident found on one of their phones was not considered as conclusive evidence.

The M5S is part of Italy's governing coalition and the rape investigation coincides with a return to front-line politics for Beppe Grillo after pushing for the party he founded to join forces with the centre-left.

Five Star Movement founder Beppe Grillo. Photo: AFP

The party was born on Genoa-born founder Beppe Grillo's personal blog, but ahead of elections in 2018 the comedian formally separated his personal site from the party and its backers.

Beppe Grillo has also become notorious in Italy for his controversial statements and blog posts, including one reportedly mocking warnings that Genoa's Morandi bridge could collapse.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Italy's Five Star Movement

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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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