The Italian mafia seems to have switched from extortion and murder to financial crime in recent years. This mainly involves misuse of corona recovery funds and EU funds.
Aggressive
Italian prosecutors told the Reuters news agency that the mafia in their country has aggressively turned to white-collar crime. In the year 2022, only 17 mafia murders were registered, compared to more than 700 in 1991. ‘The godfathers no longer deign to liquidate themselves these days.’
Shift
There has been a shift towards Tax Evasion and Financial Fraud, fueled by the millions in Covid recovery funds that were intended to restart the economy but are now being misused by fraudsters.
Prime Minister Meloni’s government recently discovered that 16 billion euros had been committed fraud involving funds for home repairs. Justice is also investigating the abuse of a European Union stimulus fund, worth no less than 200 billion euros.
The reason for the investigation into these frauds was findings by judicial investigators from the European Union into the misuse of EU funds.
Big part
The prosecutors indicate that not all fraud was committed by organized crime, but that it is likely that a large part is carried out by crime organizations. The move from traditional mafia crime to white-collar crime is being led by the country’s largest clan, the N’drangheta, Reuters reports.
In February, police in a southern region arrested 108 people alleged to be members of the organization. They are suspected of having submitted 4 million euros worth of false invoices for work not carried out in the shipbuilding, cleaning industry and car rental.
