Fraud, non-existent tax credits, and undue compensation

Financial Police, Piacenza Provincial Command

PIACENZA – Acting on behalf of the Piacenza Public Prosecutor's Office, the Piacenza Provincial Fire and Rescue Command (Fiamme Gialle) has executed an emergency precautionary seizure order aimed at confiscating assets totaling over €5 million. The order was issued against a professional resident in Rome, a de facto director of a Piacenza-based company, and a third party. They are believed to be responsible for the crimes of undue compensation and aggravated fraud for the receipt of public funds. These individuals are accused of collusion with 10 other suspects, including de facto directors and legal representatives of 10 companies located in Lazio and Campania, all implicated in a complex and well-structured fraud scheme to the detriment of the Treasury. The investigation, coordinated by the local judicial authorities, was conducted by the financial police of the Piacenza Economic and Financial Police Unit through technical activities such as wiretapping, analysis of telephone records, shadowing, searches and seizures, documentary checks, and interviews with persons informed of the facts. These investigations uncovered the existence of a fraudulent scheme, conceived and directed by the professional, based on the creation of "fake" tax credits, which originally did not exist, attributable to "rental fees for non-residential properties and business rent."

Piacenza-based company active throughout the country and awarded multiple public contracts

These credits were subsequently "resold" through instrumental "chain" sales, carried out in a very short period of time by shell companies, only to be subsequently purchased and improperly used as offsets by various companies to pay their own tax debts, including a Piacenza-based company, operating throughout the country and awarded multiple public contracts, responsible for having purchased and improperly offset non-existent credits amounting to €1,150,000. The simulated chain of purchases and sales of false tax credits , totaling €5,100,000, operated by the various shell companies involved, was also intended to further hinder the identification of their illicit characterization, in an attempt to simultaneously ward off and limit any direct involvement of the final recipient companies.

Seizure against the professional as well as the de facto administrator of the company

Furthermore, further financial investigations conducted by the Piacenza Guardia di Finanza revealed that the amounts paid to "simulate" the acquisition of the tax credit were promptly "transferred" to certain companies, represented by front men, some of whom had criminal records, linked to the Casale criminal organization. These companies, in turn, immediately transferred the sums of money to foreign countries that are uncooperative in anti-money laundering measures, such as China. In execution of the precautionary measure issued by the local Public Prosecutor's Office, the Piacenza financial police seized, against the professional and the de facto director of the company involved, non-existent tax credits that had not yet been cashed in, financial assets held in company and personal bank accounts, a property located on the Costa Smeralda, in the popular tourist resort of Arzachena (Sassari), four plots of land and a garage, located in the provinces of Latina and Avellino respectively, for a total value of over €5 million.

Article 5, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree no. 106/2006, as introduced by Article 3 of Legislative Decree no. 188/2021

This service operation demonstrates the close operational synergy between the Piacenza Public Prosecutor's Office and the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) to protect the State's economic and financial interests, in the knowledge that combating credit fraud is aimed at ensuring the proper allocation of the significant public resources allocated to support families and businesses, thus fostering the country's productive and employment growth. Given the current preliminary investigation phase, all persons are presumed innocent until a final verdict confirming their guilt is rendered (Article 5, paragraph 1, Legislative Decree no. 106/2006, as introduced by Article 3 of Legislative Decree no. 188/2021). The presumption of innocence of persons subject to preliminary investigations remains intact, as does their right to assert, at any stage of the proceedings, their innocence in the crimes under investigation.

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