Small mistakes, greed, attention to detail by the police: this is how the deceptions against the State of those who are not in compliance with the payment of taxes are unmasked
Networking: the celebrity of the web with accreditations from abroad
The first alarm was raised by a bank manager in Ravenna, suspicious of the movements on the current account of a 25-year-old boy where conspicuous and continuous transfers from foreign current accounts and strange reasons were arriving. Not huge figures, but important numbers nonetheless: one thousand, two thousand, five thousand euros at a time. As required by law, he reported everything to the Anti-money laundering department. And from there everything ended up on the table of the currency police unit of Rome, which took little time to understand. They knew that type of wire transfers, no mystery: that guy was an influencer. This is how his name ended up on a wider list of total and digital tax evaders as part of a wider investigation into the world of those who work and therefore earn with social media, but believe they don’t have to pay taxes in Italy. The figures are important: the Ravenna influencer had earned around 300 thousand euros in one year, having declared nothing. Total dodger. Same situation as one of his Neapolitan “colleagues”. One hundred and fifty thousand euros of wire transfers. Zero taxes paid. What’s more: as he was destitute, the INPS was also paying him the basic income. About sixteen thousand euros already paid which, clearly, have been asked for back. «The most incredible thing», explain the financiers, recalling that clearly those who work with digital technology are to be considered self-employed and as such must deal with the tax authorities, «is that at the time of the assessment, they were incredulous in front of our questions and the prospect of a hefty fine and even more serious consequences. We are influencers, they pay us from abroad on the pay postal service, we don’t have to pay taxes” they replied. They were wrong.
The professional: a five-star life discovered thanks to the shopping voucher
In the environment, he is considered a mythological character: Vittorio Zaniboni, real estate broker and luxury car dealer, owner of a 240 square meter penthouse in the center of Genoa and owner of a collection of about twenty luxury and vintage cars, each of which is worth a few hundred thousand euros. To say: a few years ago he sold the first Ferrari model built for road use, for a million dollars. Well, despite this, Zanoboni was destitute according to his tax authorities. Zero euros declared, an Isee of a few thousand euros and a five-star standard of living thanks, believe him, to the help of generous friends. What fooled him was the request for a bonus spent on the municipality of Genoa, during Covid: he said he couldn’t even eat, and as per practice, the cross-checks started and the attic and supercar park came out. Zaniboni was thus tried and sentenced, last March, in the first instance to seven years and five months. “An injustice” he shouted, the “Genovese Briatore”, as his friends call him, in an interview with Secolo XIX. “But on appeal I will be acquitted because I did not commit what they accuse me of. No treasure, I had an inheritance and from there the buying and selling of luxury cars started. My mother gave me a Ferrari when I was 22, it’s a passion. And then: I can understand if someone gives me two or three years but not like that, it takes a bit of decency». A few months ago he starred in a video clip of a song that said: “He will stay in the villa as a suspect until the tax authorities take me to prison”. Zaniboni has returned the money from the shopping voucher while he continues to live in the attic in the city center. For the moment.
The “carousel” scam: the checks on the BMW with the German registration certificate are fatal
This story begins with a shovel raised just outside Foggia, on a provincial road. Driving a 34-year-old boy, no criminal record, who diligently stopped at what looked like a check. He showed the temporary number plate of the BMW he was driving, as well as the German ownership documents, telling the agents that he was returning from Germany to take the car to a company that had entrusted him with the transport.
Everything seemed to be in order if it hadn’t been for a more zealous financier than the others, who was arriving from a very particular week of work: they had discovered a classic parallel accounting in the office of a notary in the province of Foggia, known and respected, reconstructing that about 20 percent of what he collected was undeclared. Justifying the reduced fees with “preferential prices for friends and family”.
In any case, that financier didn’t like the car with the temporary license plate at all. And this is how he asked some colleagues to delve into the company’s work. It didn’t take much to figure out what was behind it: the owner of the company was a gentleman from Cerignola who apparently had no property, zero euros declared to the tax authorities. Yet his company had a turnover of twenty million euros: the sale of cars, from Germany to Italy, with a carousel-type scam behind it. Result: the entrepreneur had not paid the tax authorities about 1.5 million euros, a sum that was confiscated.
The men led by the provincial commander Leonardo Ricci have in fact seized money, current accounts and 51 cars – all luxury, all German – ready to be put on the market. Clearly tax free.