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Guardia di Finanza

Seals at Norman bar and parcels stopped, Postalcoop employees without pay

The investigation counts 38 suspects and unmasks a complex system of illegal labour interposition through a network of paper companies

by Carlotta Rocci

13 October 2025

Sequestro. Il 10 settembre sono stati messi i sigilli a locali tra cui il bar Norman, lo storico bar dove venne fondato il Toro

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

"The tank companies do not pay contributions or taxes. In a few years they accumulate huge debts to the treasury. They are therefore abandoned to their fate: new tank companies are created, which take on all the employees of the previous companies.

The summary by the judge of the Court of Turin, Lucia Minutella, explains well how the system that emerged from the investigation, carried out by the economic-financial police unit of the Turin Finance Police, worked. The investigation counted 38 suspects, nine of whom were the recipients of a EUR 26.5 million seizure order, and unmasked a complex system of illegal labour interposition through a network of paper companies, invoices for non-existent transactions, and illegal labour supply contracts disguised as formally regular contracts.

A modus operandi that defrauds the tax authorities and drugs the market by lowering the cost of labour in one of the most fragile sectors, logistics. The repercussions on the two thousand or so workers caught up in this system are enormous: they are moved like parcels from one company to another, to guarantee higher turnovers for the companies involved, thanks also to the extremely low labour costs offered to clients, including logistics giants such as Amazon, Sda and Gls, which can thus also outsource the associated labour and industrial relations.

Porters and drivers were unwitting pawns in this fraudulent mechanism and today they cannot work: immediately after the blitz by the yellow flames, one of the companies under investigation, Postalcoop srl, was placed under judicial administration, which, with the act of seizure, had sealed on 10 September premises traceable to the company: among them the Norman bar, the historic bar where the Toro was founded, and two other sushi restaurants in the city centre.

The aim of the detention of the vehicles of the company involved, ordered by the judicial administration, was to immediately stop unlawful conduct and prevent the continuation of a 'time-tested' management that - as the judges wrote - 'is likely to be replicated in the future'.

The investigation, coordinated by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office headed by Giovanni Bombardieri, mainly involves two companies considered to be the real organisers of the fraud based in the Turin area: Postalcoop srl, which was seized, and Cargobroker spa, which has been in judicial liquidation since 2024. The companies' turnover has been growing over the years and this - the magistrates claim - 'is justified by the creation of tank companies to which all the employees' tax and social security contributions are paid, which are never paid, a circumstance that allows Postalcoop to charge low and unmarketable prices'. The tank companies are empty, fictitious legal entities without autonomy from the filter companies, created with the sole purpose of outsourcing the cost of labour.

Postalcoop, con un bacino di circa 900 lavoratori, pagava solo quando necessario, cioè solo quando c’era da saldare lo stipendio ai dipendenti. «in questo modo le cartiere restano costantemente senza liquidità e non riescono a far fronte al pagamento di imposte o contributi». Le fiamme gialle hanno analizzato migliaia di documenti contabili per ricostruire il sistema. In parte sono stati gli stessi dipendenti a far luce sui rapporti tra le varie società. Una di loro spiega ai magistrati di aver cambiato quattro società in cinque anni tra il 2019 e il 2023, «essenzialmente ho svolto sempre lo stesso tipo di attività e il mio datore di lavoro è sempre stato lo stesso». Il passaggio da una società all’altra avviene in modo automatico, le mansioni non cambiano, i contratti nemmeno. «Ci è stato comunicato che sarebbe subentrata un’altra società e ci avrebbe preso in carico loro», racconta un lavoratore che spiega come il datore di lavoro precedente sia sparito senza pagare gli stipendi. In que