Gdf, offering false investments to people who had lost their homes in the floods: three arrests

They offered investments with the promise of high financial returns in Romania to those who were in a financial crisis situation or who had lost their homes during the floods, thus exploiting their economic weakness: those who invested EUR 10,000 were promised an income of EUR 100,000, while EUR 30,000 could earn a profit of EUR 3 million. A total of 60 were the victims of the scam that was uncovered by the financiers of the Ravenna Provincial Command in an investigation that led to three precautionary measures for fraud and financial abuse issued by the gip Corrado Schiaretti: precautionary detention in prison for a man from Treviso and house arrest with electronic bracelet for two professionals from Ravenna. The financiers quantified the illicit profit at around one million euro.

The three suspects worked in a data processing centre that dealt with tax compliance: by taking advantage of the trust of customers (some in financial crisis or who had lost their homes during the flood), they were able to obtain large sums of money. In some cases, huge profits were offered in the form of 'non-repayable' loans from third parties, which could be obtained by opening foreign companies and presenting business projects to be realised through them. In other cases, the investment was described as a structured finance operation aimed at obtaining very high profits through 'algorithms' and through systems of money circulation through several countries in the world, before the return of capital to Italy.

In order to achieve the objective, however, a variable initial payment was always required (which could reach up to approximately EUR 40,000), which was transferred in violation of anti-money laundering or tax monitoring regulations. Some clients were accompanied to Romania to carry out the formalities related to the establishment or purchase of participations in Romanian companies. When clients did not see the promised results of their investments, they demanded the return of the invested assets. This request was systematically postponed with various excuses, even to the point of claiming that the return of the money would be delayed or hindered by the intervention of the investigators in the meantime.