Illegal workers and money laundering: major operation by the Gdf between Ravenna and San Marino

A preventive seizure of cash, movable property and immovable property totalling approximately 37 million euros, and over 40 searches carried out in nine provinces across the country, from Bergamo to Lecce, via Padua, Ravenna, Rimini, Cesena, Caserta, Naples and Taranto. This is the outcome of the large-scale operation ‘Mani d’oro’ carried out by the Ravenna Financial Police, which dismantled a complex network of shell companies used as labour pools for genuine businesses. The scheme involved the illegal supply of workers and consequent tax evasion. The money was then laundered through shell companies that issued false invoices totalling tens of millions of euros. Twenty-two people are currently under investigation, including two professionals.

Investigations by the Fiamme Gialle have brought to light the existence of numerous companies which, whilst formally operating in the mechanical engineering sector, were in reality nothing more than labour pools, involving a total of around a thousand workers, including welders, carpenters and workshop labourers. Most of the workers were of foreign origin and were hired or sacked depending on the workloads of the actual companies involved in the scheme. These were, in fact, the only ones that actually had the resources and organisational capacity to carry out contracts or subcontracts.

Thanks to the system described, the companies in question enjoyed significant tax savings. Furthermore, they had access to the necessary workforce without having to use officially authorised agencies or having to fulfil any obligations towards their workers, such as wage and social security protections and the obligation to offer permanent contracts.

The scheme, however, was broader and more complex, and did not stop at the illegal supply of labour. The money collected from the supply of staff was only partly used to pay the workers and was laundered through a sophisticated underground banking system involving some 1,200 additional economic entities, with over 80 million euros transferred abroad over a two-year period.

In Naples and Bergamo, through 155 shell companies, false invoices were first issued for non-existent transactions totalling around 130 million euros; subsequently, after several transfers through various bank accounts, part of the money was returned in cash, net of a commission ranging from 14 to 22 per cent. The shell companies then avoided paying the taxes due by making use of fictitious tax credits (amounting to approximately eleven million euros).