Gold trade and illegal slaughter with meat: 17 arrests for a fraud of 300 million euros

"I take everything off". Francesco Giordano considered by investigators as one of the leaders of the criminal badociation, feels hunted by Guardia di Finanza and, stopped on the phone, confesses to the father from want to delete PC data from his alleged desktop and a USB stick. Giordano was finished in prison with four other people including two accountants, 12 others were under house arrest while for four freelancers he took the obligation to sign and prohibit for one year of business exercise. At the center of the operation "The Buthcer", led by the financiers of Rho and coordinated by the Milanese prosecutors Maurizio Ascione and Gianfranco Gallo tax evasion of 300 million # 39; euros establishment of a consortium of companies, namely the Sg – Global Services Company leader in the meat slaughtering sector with approximately 1400 workers

According to the reconstruction of investigators, reported in the order of the investigating judge Guido Salvini the suspects allegedly developed a delinquent system in the labor supply . In practice, the consortium received meat processing services from companies in the sector. Services which automatically subcontracted to members of the consortium who made the workers available. These, in their turn, allegedly exhibited non-existent VAT credits with which they would compensate for tax debts and in some cases also those related to workers' contributions, thus being exempt from taxation. The advantage, from this mechanism, is soon stated: the consortium would have found itself in a particularly competitive position on the market since it could offer services at reduced costs. And the result, according to the investigators, is that the owners would be unduly enriched.

Orders and searches were carried out all over Italy and more than 200 financiers were employed in the provinces of Bari, Bergamo, Biella, Brescia, Caserta, Crotone, Fermo, Foggia, Forlì-Cesena, Lecce, Macerata, Milan, Modena, Novara, Rimini, Rome, Savona, Taranto, Teramo, Turin, Venice and Vercelli. The confiscated properties, including the luxury villas in Milan and Bergamo, the nightclubs and restaurants in Bitonto and Rome, are over 90, to which are added two yachts, a Maserati Levante current accounts, jewelry and seven safes worth about 60 million euros. Among the seized goods, also Bitonto Calcio team of Pugliese who plays at the amateur level.

"Tributary offenses of this magnitude end, because of the contacts and the structures of servitude they need, to intertwine organized crime cases ", particularly the Puglia, we read in the order of the judge of instruction. Angelo Basile considered one of the two leaders of the badociation with Giordano, allegedly used the "acquired illicit capital" by purchasing " nurseries object of the one of its main reinvestment activities.As evidence of how the consortium is an entity in the total availability of the two top leaders of the criminal badociation (Giordano and Basil) there is a text message and a conversation in which the second request to the first to make a bank transfer of 10 thousand euros on the account of the company "Frutta di Mare" which is the company with which Basile, through the intermediary d & # 39; A third party, proceeds to the acquisition of the clam nurseries.This transfer will then be carried out with the consortium money ".