Italian authorities have dismantled a sophisticated underground banking operation linked to organized crime, seizing €21 million in assets, including cryptocurrency. The operation, centered around a car-rental business near Milan, involved 30 arrests, including a financial police inspector, a court employee, and a lawyer. Prosecutors allege the network issued over €110 million in fake invoices and moved approximately €68 million abroad, some of it through crypto exchanges.
The investigation, led by Milan's anti-mafia prosecutors, targeted members of the 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, and other crime groups. The network used shell companies to issue fraudulent invoices, allowing businesses to evade taxes. Funds were then laundered through banks in Luxembourg, Lithuania, and Germany before being converted into cryptocurrency. The operation also facilitated money laundering for drug traffickers and victims of online crypto scams.
Among those arrested were two individuals with ties to 'Ndrangheta clans from Crotone and a member of the Camorra's Casalesi clan. Chinese and Albanian accomplices assisted in operating the network. The Guardia di Finanza's technology fraud unit played a crucial role in the investigation, which spanned over 500 pages in a court order.
Italian authorities have long warned about organized crime's adoption of digital assets. In 2021, Italy's Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate noted that criminal organizations, including the 'Ndrangheta, were increasingly using cryptocurrency and the deep web for their activities.