The Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice has denounced 54 subjects of Ukrainian, Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Russian and Israeli nationality who perpetrated serial scams against Italian citizens.
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The Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, Italy, under the direction of the Prosecutor of the Republic of Pordenone, has denounced 54 subjects of Ukrainian, Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Russian and Israeli nationality (no Italian is currently under investigation) who, through 14 companies located in Scotland, Ukraine, the Marshall Islands, Serbia, Estonia, England, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Israel and Hungary, perpetrated serial scams against Italian citizens.
With regard to the disputed crimes (transnational criminal association aimed at aggravated fraud crimes, abusive collection of savings, abusive activity of providing payment services and money laundering) the preventive seizure was also requested, aimed at the confiscation, of almost five million and a half euros, the result of scams.
As part of a broad and articulated investigative context conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, focused on the analysis of financial flows highlighted by reports of suspicious transactions and addressed to international corporate screens that used payment systems and IT platforms created ad hoc, it is a vast international criminal association emerged dedicated to serial online scams, defined as "boiler rooms" - the so-called boiler room (because they put the investor under pressure) – in the so-called Foreign Exchange sector. “FOREXâ€, the unregulated international currency market, as well as the international stock market.
In particular, the platforms used by the criminal organization and identified during the investigations are the following: www.toptrade.fm, www.alphacapital.fm, www.globalfxm.com, www.novuscm.com, www.grandfxpro.com, www.dax-300.com.
The criminal system consisted of a complex and articulated multi-company structure, with a "variable geometry", fluid and multitasking, made up of several operational levels, each of which served and mainly assigned to a specific task.
This structure envisaged the periodic, systematic opening and closing of companies and current accounts to avoid controls by the competent authorities and in any case at the first sign of danger.
The first level, made up of call centers located in Central Europe, was functional in contacting potential Italian investors and convincing them to send money to the IBAN codes of Central-Eastern European companies for investments heralding "miraculous" earnings, with the sole purpose of snatching the savings.
The second level, to which the money reached, formed by these companies, provided for the illegal collection of the savings of the unsuspecting scammers, without having the required government authorizations, then arranging the various fictitious investments.
Lured by the first earnings, the scammed ended up using all their life savings in the telephone investment, burning them literally and gradually slipping into a state of psychological prostration that bound them even more.
In reality, the money was used, through unauthorized payment services, also for the settlement of invoices issued by EU companies towards Ukrainian and Russian companies and the 'Eastern Europe.
At the same time, the illicit proceeds were diluted, by reinvesting them, erasing their traces and transferring them to further company accounts, until they disappeared, by means of professionals who owned Swiss and Caribbean companies.
These latter companies, defined as third tier, further circulating the money of illicit origin, then directed it to the criminal terminal made up of the circle of leaders of Israel and Eastern Europe.
The profile of the 141 identified fraudulent individuals deserves special mention (in reality, the number of those who fell into the network, including foreigners, is much higher), located throughout practically the entire national territory (34 of which in the Triveneto area).
In fact, we are not dealing with people who are inexperienced or with a low level of education: very often the scammed are freelance professionals, sometimes from the economic-legal area, certainly wealthy as they have had the opportunity to invest tens if not hundreds of thousands of euros, often also with previous experience of equity investments.
The investigations, also carried out on foreign territory through international letters rogatory (in particular in Hungary and Switzerland) promoted by the Public Prosecutor of Pordenone as well as by means of international police cooperation conveyed by the General Command of the Corps, in addition to the prosecution of those responsible, are aimed at the recovery of the sums object of the scams.
However, these activities appear to be particularly complex and of uncertain outcome also taking into account the current conflict in Ukraine, where most of the subjects under investigation are located. ■