The investigation

Hacker investigation: dossiers, clients and victims. What we know so far

The dossier case stems from the investigation by Milan's Anti-Mafia District Directorate, which on Friday 25 October uncovered a network of alleged spies led by former super-cop Carmine Gallo (under house arrest), the operational arm of Enrico Pazzali, president of Fondazione Fiera (uninvolved in the investigation), who has suspended himself

by Redaction Rome

29 October 2024

Inchiesta hacker, Viminale: "Verifiche su accessi abusivi"

5' min read

5' min read

The dossier case stems from the investigation by the Direzione distrettuale antimafia of Milan, which on Friday 25 October uncovered a network of alleged spies led by former super-cop Carmine Gallo (under house arrest), the operational arm of Erico Pazzali, president of Fondazione Fiera (not involved in the investigation) and owner of Equalize, an investigation company that was the mainstay of an illegal dossier activity. Pazzali has self-suspended from his role as president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, communicating his decision in the evening to the organisation's executive committee. Two other companies were also part of the scheme, Mercury Advisor srls and Develope and Go srls. 52 people were investigated with 16 requests for arrest, only four of which were granted by the Gip. Two interdictions were also issued against a policeman and a financier. Among the charges - for various reasons - is criminal conspiracy aimed at abusive access to computer systems, bribery, abusive wiretapping and disclosure of official secrets.

The network

Pazzali had already been a director of Fiera Milano spa in 2009-2015 and then at the helm of Eur spa: he is among those for whom the non-Gip did not grant pre-trial detention.

Instead, he is under house arrest Gallo. The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office had asked for him to be remanded in custody. A 65-year-old former police officer, Gallo's career includes the decisive role in solving the murder of fashion designer Maurizio Gucci. A pillar of the first maxi Milanese operations against the 'ndrangheta, he was a protagonist in the investigation of kidnappings and among the architects of the liberation of the hostage Alessandra Sgarella. He left the police force permanently in 2018. He is ad of Equalize.

The other protagonist of illegal espionage is Nunzio Samuele Calamucci (under house arrest): 45 years old, officially an 'engineer and business consultant' but above all a hacker who was part of the Anonymous collective. Calamucci had managed to infiltrate a company that created the new Viminale database and managed its maintenance.

The Dossier System

The gang, which, according to the magistrates, had connections from organised crime to the secret services, including foreign ones, through the agency offered and sold reports on people through abusive access to State databases: the Sdi, the system at the Ministry of the Interior where all the news relating to the activities of the police forces are entered (the group's accesses would have been 350 thousand), the Inps database, Serpico (Information System of the Revenue Agency), Anpr (National Register of Resident Population), Siva (Currency Information System). Thousands of data ended up in reports that were often 'camouflaged' so as to appear lawful.

Reports were created on commission in exchange for money, but also 'for extortion or blackmail purposes, in order to condition and influence the political and business sectors in particular'.

It emerged from the documents of the investigation that 800,000 people would end up in the network of the association based in Milan, at Via Pattari 6, a stone's throw from the Duomo. These also included the highest institutional offices.

The "customers"

Under investigation are, among others, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, manager of Essilor Luxottica and son of the founder of the eyewear group, who allegedly asked for and obtained information on his brothers for inheritance reasons and on his then girlfriend, model and actress, Jessica Michel Serfaty and his right-hand man Marco Talarico. Also under investigation are banker Matteo Arpe and his brother Fabio for abusive access to the Alessandria branch of banco Bpm. Fulvio Pravadelli, the former head of Publitalia and general manager of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, is alleged to have had singer-songwriter Alex Britti 'spied on' because of his separation from his daughter.

The president of the first civil section of the Court of Appeal of Milan, the civil judge Carla Romana Raineri, former chief of cabinet of the mayor Raggi in Rome, is under investigation in Brescia. The magistrate allegedly approached the group led by the former policeman for 'verifications' on the dating of a family member with a woman married to an immigrant. The magistrate, through lawyer Nicola Menardo of the Grande Stevens law firm, declared her 'extraneousness to the offences to which she has been accosted'.

Among Equalize's clients are also companies. The food giant Barilla, through security manager Maurizio D'Anna, is looking for those responsible for a leak that ended up in the newspaper Milano Finanza.

From Erg through some of its managers (such as the head of technology Danilo Greco or the human resources manager Giorgio Coraggioso) comes the request to monitor the activity on work PCs in order to discover 'alleged insider trading' by some employees. In exchange for a 143,000 euro fee, Equalize's technicians activate a computer capturing device that allows 'indiscriminate and concealed interception of all employees' communications and conversations, including intimate and personal ones on WhatsApp'.

The network of alleged cyber-spies also had Ilva in extraordinary administration as a client. As stated in the documents, 'the company became a client of the group as a result of the links woven by Pazzali and his contacts', Claudio Picucci, the group's human resources director and formerly of Poste Italiane. Both the manager and Ilva are not under investigation.

A dossier request also came from the Italian subsidiary of Heineken, the Dutch beer giant, which through attorney Teresa Ferro commissioned Equalize to install monitoring software on the phones of two employees.

The spies

The spy network allegedly gathered information on several politicians. With Equalize - writes the Milan public prosecutor Francesco De Tommasi - the group allegedly intercepted 'an e-mail address of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella', managing 'to misuse or clone the president's account'.

Among the victims were also the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa with his eldest son Geronimo, and former premier Matteo Renzi. Pazzali asked for confidential information about people linked to Letizia Moratti, who had run for president of the Lombardy Region at the end of 2022, challenging the outgoing president Attilio Fontana ("Excuse me, I have turned over a site to you, it is the new one of Moratti to launch herself against Fontana," Pazzali wrote to Gallo). 'Enrico Pazzali is a person I have always esteemed,' said Fonatana, 'and whom I continue to esteem. I am amazed by this affair, because I knew absolutely nothing about these initiatives, this activity'.

In August 2022, he asked Gallo if there were 'things going on', for the investigators 'compromising information that could exclude Paolo Scaroni' 'from the race to be appointed as adjudicator of the Milan-Cortina 2026 company' for the Winter Olympics.

Among those spied was Carlo Sangalli, president of Confcommercio and the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Chamber of Commerce.

The Equalize hackers allegedly 'abusively broke into the telephones and computers' of the chairman of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Giovanni Gorno Tempini, the journalist Guido Rivolta, the public relations manager Giuliana Paoletti, the envoy of Sole 24 Ore Gianni Dragoni and the journalist of Repubblica Giovanni Pons, 'acquiring information on their contacts and movements, as well as exfiltrating their WhatsApp chats' with the 'keywords "Pazzali", "Eur", "Fiera", "Fontana" and "Bonomi"'.