Mafia exploiting new business opportunities
in the southern region of Calabria is the nation’s biggest organised crime group. While maintaining a tight grip on the European cocaine trade, it has led the drive into finance over the past decade. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) sounded the alarm in February, warning the huge scale of financial wrongdoing across the 27nation bloc suggested the involvement of organised crime groups. Almost a third of the EPPO’s 1927 active cases last year were centred on Italy, where the estimated damage was put at ¤7.38b out of a total ¤19.3b in the whole bloc. Interviews with seven prosecutors and police chiefs, coupled with an analysis of thousands of pages of court documents, revealed the breadth of Mob involvement in Italy’s business world.
Prosecutors said the crimes often relied on the complicity of entrepreneurs, happy to find new ways to dodge taxes. Tax evasion is a chronic problem in Italy, costing state coffers some ¤83b in 2021, according to the most recent Treasury data.
‘‘In Italy, there is no social stigma for those who issue false invoices or evade taxes,’’ said Alessandra Dolci, head of Milan’s antimafia prosecution team. ‘‘Social views on economic crimes are very different to those regarding drug trafficking.’’
Going bankrupt
While there is no official estimate of the scale of organised crime’s involvement in financial crimes in Italy, two of the prosecutors who spoke to Reuters estimated it was billions of euros each year — only a fraction of which had been uncovered. For criminal gangs, given the large sums of money involved, the penalties are relatively light. If you are caught trying to sell as little as 50g of cocaine, you risk up to 20 years in jail. But if you issue bogus invoices to gain ¤500 million of fraudulent tax credits, you only face between 18 months and six years in prison.
‘‘There is no comparison when it comes to assessing the riskreward ratio,’’ Dolci said.
In February, police in the northern region of Emilia Romagna arrested 108 people believed to be close to the
’Ndrangheta. They are suspected of issuing ¤4m worth of fake invoices for nonexistent services in shipbuilding, industrial machinery maintenance, cleaning and car rental. The investigation is ongoing and a date has not yet been set for trial.
Tax Police provincial commander Colonel Filippo Ivan Bixio said such schemes allowed businessmen to reduce taxable income and gain tax credits.
‘‘It’s not a sporadic phenomenon. It’s structured.’’ Milan magistrate Pasquale Addesso has witnessed the metamorphosis of the mafia up close. Since the city staged a trial in 2011 of some 120 defendants, accused of an array of traditional mafia crimes, Addesso says he has not come across a single case of extortion, which was once a mainstay of mob activity.
‘‘The ’Ndrangheta . . . is no longer involved in extortion rackets, but in insolvencies and bankruptcies,’’ he said.
‘‘[It] has entered the world of subcontracting, responding to a demand for tax evasion from entrepreneurs.’’
A trial that concluded last year centred on an investigation led by Addesso that uncovered some of the many scams used by mobsters, including creating apparently legitimate cooperatives that offer cutpriced outsourcing services to companies, only to bankrupt them after just two years.
The reason was simple. The government offers handsome tax breaks to newly formed companies. A company that has no intention of growing can use this help to offer highly competitive prices and then, by fraudulently declaring bankruptcy, can walk away from its debts and social welfare obligations.
‘‘The ’Ndrangheta operates throughout the temporary work supply sector, from transport to cleaning,’’ said Gaetano Paci, chief prosecutor in the northern city Reggio Emilia.
‘‘By not paying taxes and contributions, it can offer services at slashed prices.’’
The ’Ndrangheta . . . is no longer involved in extortion rackets, but in insolvencies and bankruptcies