Palermo, loans at 60% interest rates: 3.5 million confiscated from two usurers

Assets for over 3.5 million euros were confiscated by the financial police of the provincial command of Palermo from two brothers from Palermo, Giuseppe and Maurizio Sanfilippo, respectively 69 and 61 years old, accused of usury and considered for years the major credit references illegal in Palermo and its province.

According to military investigations, the two brothers lent money to merchants and entrepreneurs in difficulty by applying interest rates that reached up to 60% on an annual basis. The provision belongs to the preventive measures section of the court, which became irrevocable with a sentence of the cassation.

Today’s activity is linked to a 2011 operation, called “The Uncle” – the uncle, as one of the brothers called himself by the victims and collaborators – and was conducted by the economic and financial police unit of the guard of finance, led by Colonel Gianluca Angelini. Maurizio Sanfilippo has negotiated a sentence of three years and three months of imprisonment, while Giuseppe is currently in court.

The confiscation involved two companies, a tobacco shop in Misilmeri (Pa) and a clothing store in Palermo; 14 properties, including homes, commercial premises and plots of land, between Palermo, Bagheria, Trabia and Termini Imerese; 11 vehicles; 20 financial reports. One of the victims of usury, late in paying, had been approached, threatened and beaten by a “collaborator” of the brothers, forcing the investigators to speed up the operation and arresting the perpetrator of the beating in the act of crime. when he was preparing to collect the installment. At least twenty of the alleged victims were summoned to the provincial command of the Guardia di Finanza. But when the investigation started, only three began to cooperate.