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Italy’s mafia is shunning murder and extortion in favour of white-collar crime as ‘wet work’ falls out of favour with the new generation of mafioso. Hey, you have to move with the times, capise?
Italy’s mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers. Just 17 people were killed by the mob in Italy in 2022, according to the latest official data, versus more than 700 in 1991.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) – which investigates crimes against the financial interests of the European Union – sounded the alarm in February, warning that the huge scale of financial wrongdoing across the 27-nation bloc suggested the involvement of organized crime groups.
According to Reuters, a thorough examination of hundreds of pages of court records and interviews with seven chiefs of police and prosecution in Italy exposed the extent of mafia involvement in the country’s business community and the financial burden this is placing on the government.
According to the prosecution, business owners who are eager to discover new ways to evade taxes frequently assist in these crimes. Italy has a long-standing issue with tax cheating, which cost the government 83 billion euros (R1.3 trillion) in 2021, according to the latest Treasury figures.
“In Italy, there is no social stigma for those who issue false invoices or evade taxes, social views on economic crimes are very different to those regarding drug trafficking.”
Given the substantial financial stakes, the penalties are comparatively lenient for criminal groups. You might spend up to 20 years in prison if you are found trying to sell even 50 grammes of cocaine. However, the punishment for creating false invoices in order to obtain illegal tax credits is only 18 months to 6 years in prison.
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 4 million euros (R79 million) worth of fake invoices for non-existent services in shipbuilding, industrial machinery maintenance, cleaning and car rental.
“The ‘Ndrangheta … is no longer involved in extortion rackets, but in insolvencies and bankruptcies.”
Investigators claim that although the perpetrators of this scam were found guilty and sent to prison, many more criminals elude them, in part because of regulations that restrict the amount of time that can be spent prosecuting white-collar crimes.
The statute of limitations is six years for tax evasion, eight years for failing to pay value-added tax and ten years for filing for fake bankruptcy. Prosecutors assert that even in cases when a conviction is reached, the appeals process is frequently drawn out and that intricate investigations can take many years.
Considering some of the shenanigans corporates get up to, it’s only a matter of time until you won’t be able to tell CEOs from wiseguys.
[source:reuters]
