Vita gazette – A gang of fraudsters has been discovered. They received tax deductions of billions of euros by illegally benefiting from state incentives to support home renovations.

The Guardia di Finanza of Savona said that after searching 85 companies in 10 Italian regions, they investigated 311 people and seized illegal tax deductions worth one billion euros. Searches in Liguria, Piedmont, Veneto, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Campania and Puglia.

The investigation has revealed a web of deceit, with ghost companies, tax evaders, and non-existent properties all playing a part. The beneficiaries of these fraudulent activities, often unknown to the tax authorities, were also found to be recipients of citizen’s income, eco bonus, and facade bonus. This comprehensive investigation by the financiers of the Provincial Command of Savona has led to a preventive seizure decree for the amount of one billion euros, to be carried out on the tax drawer of the 311 economic subjects involved, holders of tax credits in ten regions throughout Italy.

The investigations discovered that the tax credits were completely non-existent because they were obtained through false invoices for work to be carried out or in progress on properties owned by individuals in the Savona area.

led to the discovery of how the scam carried out by the companies operating in the province had been replicated on a national scale by other companies in the sector. These were actual ghost companies, unknown to the tax authorities or with inconsistent business volumes, without properties to which it was possible to associate the construction works aimed at obtaining the benefit in question and active/passive invoices aimed at proving the effective execution of the works. In essence, therefore, operations existed only on paper.

Looking at the subjects involved, some were recipients of citizenship income, others “burdened by specific criminal records, which also include crimes in the public spending sector”, and others had generated and accepted credits with subjects with whom they had a kinship connection.

Finally, some companies that had generated fictitious credits had purchased credits, “as in the case of a person who had purchased credits as a natural person from a company he represented”. All intersections are necessary to make the reconstruction of the chain of passages more complex. Some of the subjects involved had already carried out the undue compensation of the bonuses, “achieving illicit and appreciable tax advantages”. At the same time, another had purchased blocks of fictitious credits with a nominal value of hundreds of millions of euros for a negligible consideration poured out.

Ten regions involved

The operation, under the aegis of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, initiated 85 searches against all the companies generating the fictitious credits and their legal representatives, using over 250 soldiers in Liguria, Piedmont, Veneto, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Campania, and Puglia.