The Financiers of the Provincial Command of Messina have seized 817 thousand euros from 110 foreign citizens who would have received the citizenship income without being entitled to it. The provision, issued by the investigating judge, on the proposal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office led by Maurizio de Lucia, was born from the investigations of the Fiamme Gialle which examined an audience of over 2000 foreigners, non-EU and EU citizens, who had requested and received the benefit: mostly citizens Romanians, Nigerians, Moroccans, Sri Lankans, but also people who came from Latin America and Arab countries.
Citizenship income is recognized to families who, at the time of submitting the application and for the entire duration of the benefit, are in possession of the requirements of citizenship, residence and residence and income provided for by law. By combining the information reported by the beneficiaries with that emerging from the Finance databases, discrepancies emerged in relation to the possession of the requisites, in particular those relating to residence. The applicant, at the time of submitting the application, must have lived in Italy for at least 10 years, the last two of which continuously.
Investigations revealed that 110 foreigners had lied on this point when submitting the application. Some, between 2019 and 2021, would have received sums exceeding 29 thousand euros. The activity was preceded by collaboration with the Messina INPS, which made available to the Department all the elements necessary to carry out the investigations.