Corruption and international money laundering, maxi operation between Italy, France and Switzerland: two professionals arrested, kidnappings for 15 million

The soldiers of the provincial command of the Guardia di Finanza of Milan, delegated by the prosecutor, are currently engaged in the execution of a precautionary custody order in prison against two professionals, a Swiss trustee and a Lombard consultant, the Oscar brothers and Luca Ronzoni, accused of laundering over 21 million euros of capital deriving from tax fraud, managed in trust in tax havens on offshore encrypted funds, transferred through a series of simulated transactions between US and European vehicle companies with current accounts rooted between Austria, Cyprus, England, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Bahamas and Mauritius. At the same time, the over 70 soldiers of the Milan economic-financial police unit are carrying out over 18 searches in the provinces of Milan, Como, Varese, Bergamo, Perugia, Genoa and Turin and the preventive seizure decree, issued by the investigating judge, on movable property, immovable property and financial resources for a total value of over € 14.7 million of which: approximately € 12 million as a profit from international corruption conducts and, in part, from related tax crimes, against a Milanese multinational , PetrolValves, operating in the manufacturing and marketing of industrial valves; over € 1 million as a profit from the transnational money laundering activities carried out by the arrested consultants; over 1.7 million euros as profit from tax crimes against individuals and companies that have made use of the fraudulent serial models of international tax evasion made available by the Swiss trustee and his associates. A total of 9 subjects are under investigation, for various reasons, for the crime of international money laundering aggravated by the purpose of allowing third parties to commit corruption between private individuals, tax fraud through the use of invoices for non-existent operations or more complex operations of fictitious interposition of vehicles companies created ad hoc to divert income otherwise taxable in Italy to tax havens and, finally, corruption among private individuals.

The investigations of the “Swift-MyCash” operation revealed that the criminal scheme carried out by the arrested professionals was instrumental not only to guarantee undue tax savings to numerous national taxpayers, in favor of which the proceeds of tax fraud were managed in trust in tax havens or returned in cash, but also to create black funds abroad, subject to monetization in cash for the subsequent implementation of corrupt donations or as an alternative to the transfer of the sums to the Swiss accounts of the recipients of the bribes. , with reference to the disputed corrupt conduct between private individuals, in one case the false invoices (for a total amount of approximately 1.6 million euros) recorded in the accounts by the Milanese multinational for alleged intermediation and consultancy services would have been monetized and delivered to executives “Top” of the aforementioned company, who would then prov seen to deliver sums equal to 740 thousand euros to the acquired director of an important French energy company, Technip, active in the extraction and processing of petroleum products.

The bribes would have allowed the Milanese multinational to win an important order worth over 20 million euros with a benefit of over 11.5 million euros, entirely seized by the financiers on the current accounts of the Italian multinational. In another episode, the payment of the “bribe” for a total of € 417,800 would have occurred mainly by the Swiss trustee and his associate, partly in cash and partly on Swiss banking relationships in the name of top representatives of a Piedmontese company operating in the engineering sector. These sums originate from the payment of invoices for non-existent transactions, for an amount of € 550 thousand, by a Milanese company which, in the face of corrupt dictations conveyed through the Swiss fiduciary and upon payment of the 18% commission for the money launderers , would have obtained orders worth over 20 million euros from the Piedmontese company.

The activity of the Yellow Flames is part of a larger international operation carried out in synergy with the French Gendarmerie and the Cantonal Police of Ticino which, thanks to specific European Investigation Orders and international letters rogatory activities adopted by the local Public Prosecutor’s Office Repubblica, in conjunction with the activities of the judicial police in Italy, are carrying out searches at the Lugano office of the trustee headed by the main suspect and at the home of the same Swiss professional arrested for money laundering and, as regards France, searches at the home and office of the executive of the French multinational accused of having pocketed bribes of over 700,000 euros.

The Milanese multinational, which thanks to the bribes paid by its former executives, would have obtained a contract worth 20 million euros, will have to respond under the regulations of the administrative liability of the entities which provides for the applicability of financial penalties in addition to the seizure of the profit of the conducts corruption committed for their own benefit and advantage.