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CRIME

Brazil arrests mafioso on the run since 1980s

A crime boss convicted of more than 20 murders and sentenced to life in prison in his native Italy was arrested in Brazil on Tuesday after nearly 30 years on the run, police said.

Published: 27 May 2015 08:46 CEST
Brazil arrests mafioso on the run since 1980s
The alleged mobster told police he had fled Italy for fear of being murdered. Police photo: Shutterstock

Pasquale Scotti, 56, a leader of the Camorra, had been living under an assumed name in Recife, in northeastern Brazil, hiding his true identity even from his family.

He was arrested while driving his two daughters – 13 and 15 years old – to school.

He was married to a Brazilian woman and had lived in the same neighborhood for 28 years, presenting himself to the world as a businessman.

He told police he had fled Italy for fear of being murdered, the G1 news site reported.

The federal police said they were awaiting a request for Scotti's extradition to Italy.

In a statement, the police said Scotti was sentenced to life in prison in 1991 “for illegal possession of arms, resisting arrest, extortion and more than 20 homicides.”

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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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