Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers. Just 17 people were killed by the mob in Italy in 2022, according to the latest official data, versus more than 700 in 1991.Instead, mobsters have moved aggressively into the low-risk, low-key world of white-collar crime, senior Italian prosecutors told Reuters.
Not all the fraud is being orchestrated by Italy's powerful organized crime groups, prosecutors say, but they suspect that a lot is. The European Public Prosecutor's Office - which investigates crimes against the financial interests of the European Union - sounded the alarm in February, warning that the huge scale of financial wrongdoing across the 27-nation bloc suggested the involvement of organized crime groups.
"In Italy, there is no social stigma for those who issue false invoices or evade taxes," said Alessandra Dolci, head of Milan's anti-mafia prosecution team."Social views on economic crimes are very different to those regarding drug trafficking.
In February, police in the northern region of Emilia Romagna arrested 108 people believed to be close to the 'Ndrangheta. They are suspected of issuing 4 million euros worth of fake invoices for non-existent services in shipbuilding, industrial machinery maintenance, cleaning and car rental. Colonel Filippo Ivan Bixio, provincial commander of the Tax Police, said such schemes allowed businessmen to reduce their taxable income and gain tax credits.
The reason was simple. The government offers handsome tax breaks to newly formed companies. A company that has no intention of growing can use this help to offer highly competitive prices and then, by fraudulently declaring bankruptcy, can walk away from its debts and social welfare obligations. Hinting at the cost to the state of such schemes, the internal revenue service revealed to parliament last July that bankrupt companies owed a total of 156 billion euros in unpaid taxes and pension payments. That's roughly three times Italy's annual corporate tax revenues, which last year were 51.75 billion euros.
They didn't. Instead they ran up more debt and declared bankruptcy - not once, but twice - owing the state some 1.8 million euros in unpaid taxes.