Milan, clandestine financial system dismantled: seven people under investigation for fraud and money laundering
Seven under investigation and 810,000 euros seized: the Financial Guard has uncovered a parallel circuit for moving money outside legal channels.
Milan, clandestine financial system dismantled: seven people under investigation for fraud and money laundering
An operation by the Financial Guard (Guardia di Finanza) in Milan, directed by the Public Prosecutor's Office, has led to the execution of restrictive measures against seven individuals accused of tax fraud and money laundering. Four have been placed under house arrest; one, an accounting sector professional already stripped of his licence to practise, has received an additional ban; the remaining two have been subjected to signing in at police stations and required to remain in their municipality of residence.
In parallel, preventive seizure of assets and liquid funds totalling 810,000 euros is underway. The investigative activity follows a line opened following search raids conducted on 15 May, when cash and valuables worth 1.7 million euros had already been confiscated.
From those investigations emerged the existence of an irregular financial platform, structured to operate in the shadows: a genuine unlicensed credit institution that made it possible to conceal illegal income and remove sums from tax authorities. The operation, according to what was illustrated by the officers, reproduces the "underground banking system" scheme: cash is collected and distributed without passing through authorised intermediaries, thereby circumventing reports of suspicious transactions.
One of the critical points of the circuit was located in an apartment in the Lombard capital, used as a seat for the illegal activity. During the May inspections, more than 120,000 euros in banknotes and sophisticated devices for counting them were recovered from that location, equipped with technology capable of recording the identification codes of each individual banknote.
The accountant involved would additionally have contributed to structuring a network of dummy entities intended for issuing false documentation, aimed at justifying non-existent transactions. Source: ANSA.
Source: ANSA Cronaca