The Gdf uncovers an ‘underground bank’ run by organised crime

The Guardia di Finanza in Milan and Monza Brianza has dismantled the organised crime ‘shadow bank’ in an operation that has led to 30 arrests on charges of criminal association aggravated by the use of mafia-style methods, involving members of the ’Ndrangheta, the Camorra and the so-called ‘Fourth Mafia’ (organised crime in Foggia). Over 110 million euros’ worth of false invoices were uncovered, along with international money laundering totalling 68 million euros via cryptocurrencies. In addition to the 30 arrests, seizures totalling 21 million euros are currently underway.

Arrests are also taking place in Spain and Switzerland, as well as searches in various Italian provinces, involving over 350 officers from the Guardia di Finanza, alongside specialist units and the Corps’ ‘Anti-Terrorism Rapid Response’ unit. The operations in Spain and Switzerland are being carried out with the support of the I-CAN (Interpol Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta) Unit of the International Police Cooperation Service and in close contact with the Security Experts from the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police based in Madrid and Bern. As part of these operations, cash, bank accounts, cryptocurrencies, cars, boats, jewellery, luxury watches and money-counting machines are being seized.

Investigations by the Fiamme Gialle have revealed that in Pero, in the Milan area, behind the formal façade of a car-hire company, a veritable ‘shadow bank’ had been set up, run by three Italians believed to have links to mafia organisations: two long-standing contacts of ’Ndrangheta clans from Crotone (who had already been definitively convicted in the “Infinito” and “Aemilia” investigations) and one member of the Casalesi clan. The criminal organisation also relied on the support of Chinese and Albanian accomplices, creating a transnational financial infrastructure characterised by extremely high levels of illicit efficiency. The organisation – explains the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office – offered a service for issuing invoices for non-existent transactions through a dense network of shell companies: once they had received bank transfers to pay the fake invoices, the suspects would return – technically ‘reverse’ – the equivalent amount in cash to the complicit business owners via couriers; this cash was the proceeds of both tax evasion and drug trafficking. The accumulated bank funds were then almost entirely transferred to foreign current accounts or invested in the purchase of cryptocurrency, which is difficult to trace. In this way, the ‘shadow bank’ offered its ‘clientele’ (mainly drug traffickers and tax evaders) all the typical services of a financial institution, but through clandestine methods typical of ‘underground banking’ systems, which allow money to be transferred outside official channels, circumventing anti-money laundering safeguards.

Among those arrested as part of the operation carried out by the Monza Guardia di Finanza, coordinated by the Milan Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA), which alleges that numerous suspects are members of a criminal organisation with the aggravating circumstance of using mafia-style methods, is Domenico Bruno, a driver at the Milan Preliminary Investigating Magistrate’s Office who was responsible for seized assets and who is already implicated in another investigation. In this inquiry, Bruno, who has been placed under house arrest, is accused of unauthorised access to a computer system. A lawyer from Milan is also implicated in the investigations, alongside individuals linked to organised crime.