The operation

Catania, VAT evasion of 30 million discovered: 10 arrests and seizures at 17 companies

VAT evasion worth EUR 30 million, ten people arrested and assets seized from 17 different companies. The head of the criminal association is said to be an unmarried man, born in 1983, son of a member of the 'Santapaola' mafia clan

27 February 2024

Un'auto della Guardia di finanza in una foto d'archivio

3' min read

VAT evasion worth EUR 30 million: ten people were arrested and assets were seized from 17 different companies. The ringleader of the criminal association was allegedly an unconvicted man, born in 1983, son of a member of the 'Santapaola' mafia clan, who is currently held under the 41 bis detention regime in Sulmona prison.

The financial officers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di finanza of Catania, with the support of the Corps' Units located in the provinces of Venice, Vicenza, Messina, Siracusa, Salerno, Rome, Padua, Rieti, L'Aquila and Milan, executed a prudential measure order against 30 suspects, with which the judge for preliminary investigations at the Court of Catania, in the current state of the proceedings in which the parties have not yet been cross-examined, ordered personal precautionary measures against 10 people (6 in prison and 4 under house arrest), seriously suspected, for various reasons, of criminal conspiracy aimed at tax evasion and fraud and multiple bankruptcy conduct; precautionary disqualification measures were ordered against another 17 people, all under investigation, with a ban on exercising business activities, as well as on holding managerial or administrative offices and functions in partnerships or joint-stock companies, even through intermediaries, for a period of one year; the preventive seizure, in direct form, of sums of money in the ownership of 17 corporations and 25 suspects and, in subsidiary form, of the financial and patrimonial assets (immovable and movable property) of the latter up to a total value of more than EUR 30 million, corresponding to the VAT evaded.

Nuovo record recupero evasione, 24,7 miliardi nel 2023

Operation "last toast"

The service operation called 'Ultimo Brindisi', coordinated by the EPPO (European Public Prosecutor's Office) in Palermo and conducted by the military of the I Group of the Guardia di Finanza in Catania, concerned an articulated criminal group that allegedly illicitly marketed beverages in the national territory in evasion of VAT.

The investigation led to the identification of an organisation structured on a pyramid scale which, hiding behind so-called blockheads, managed de facto paper companies (missing traders) and interposed companies (buffers), through which they carried out the massive VAT evasion.

The paper companies were used to use and issue invoices for non-existent transactions in the marketing of beverages that, thanks to tax evasion, could be sold at highly competitive prices.

The mechanisms of fraud

Fraud mechanisms included the purchase of goods falsely destined for foreign countries without VAT, or the non-payment of tax in Italy on purchases from the Republic of San Marino, where the syndicate operated with a company traceable to them.

For the same fraud purposes, the criminal group simulated intra-Community transactions, under the reverse charge regime (value added tax is paid by the recipient of the goods instead of the supplier), through a company ostensibly located in Bulgaria but in fact managed in Italy by the same organisation.

Illegal profits amounting to almost EUR 600,000 were also realised through non-existent tax credits, artificially created through fake training courses, so-called '4.0', for the employees of some companies belonging to the criminal group.

Some members of the criminal association were found to have committed fraudulent bankruptcy by intentionally leading to the insolvency and consequent bankruptcy of three companies overburdened by tax debts, previously drained of financial resources and deprived of instrumental goods, sold at derisory prices.The investigations, which lasted about two years, were carried out through telephone and environmental wiretapping, requests for mutual assistance and administrative cooperation, financial and asset investigations against bankrupt companies. These investigations made it possible to ascertain that the criminal group - with its operational and decision-making base at a warehouse in Belpasso (CT) - availing itself of the professionalism of its associates (entrepreneurs and professionals) has achieved, over the years, a turnover in excess of one hundred million euro, defrauding the Inland Revenue for over 30 million euro.