Trani: building grant scam – assets worth 88 million seized
Between 2025 and 2026, three preventive seizure orders were issued against eight individuals and two limited companies
Three preventive seizure orders, totalling 88 million euros, have been issued against eight individuals and two limited companies. This is the outcome of investigations coordinated by the Trani Public Prosecutor’s Office and delegated to the Barletta Economic and Financial Police Unit, which between 2025 and 2026 dismantled a complex fraudulent scheme in the building grant sector. Those involved are under investigation for aggravated fraud against the State and the use of proceeds obtained unlawfully through fictitious tax credits.
The diagram
The investigations began with an analysis of notifications regarding the transfer of tax credits for building renovations on the Revenue Agency’s web platform. The investigations brought to light a sophisticated scam. According to the prosecution, certain professionals in the sector allegedly exploited information relating to properties that had already benefited from major maintenance works to generate further tax credits, even though these had already been granted to the relevant owners.
The tax credits were duplicated several times, so that they could be transferred instantly to the two companies involved in the fraud, without any further refurbishment work actually being carried out. Moreover, all of this is said to have taken place without the property owners’ knowledge: the transfers of multiple fictitious tax credits were therefore layered onto their tax positions.
The use of fictitious credits
The fictitious tax credits were allegedly used by the companies involved to offset their own tax liabilities or sold to other firms, which purchased them without realising they were false. These firms then used them to offset tax liabilities that were genuinely due. The damage caused is twofold. The first aspect affects the State, which suffers from the fraud in terms of lost tax revenue. The second concerns the free market more generally, as fraudulent schemes of this nature undermine fair and healthy competition amongst businesses in the sector.
The investigations
The investigations led to the seizure not only of the suspects’ movable and immovable assets, but also of 13 million in tax credits still held in the tax records. The risk was that these credits would be channelled into the economy and used to evade tax payments, to the detriment of the State’s coffers.
