Maxi operation by the Messina Financial Police against fraud in the construction bonus sector. At the disposal of the Peloritana Prosecutor’s Office, the soldiers of the Milazzo Company carried out yesterday, Friday 27 March, a preventive seizure of over 810,000 euros against two people and a social cooperative operating in the sector of assistance to the elderly and disabled.
The investigation revealed a mechanism as simple as it was illicit: the suspects had obtained large sums by monetizing credits for “Ecobonus”, “Earthquake bonus” and “Facade bonus” through the Revenue Agency platform. However, the energy efficiency works had never started. The investigations revealed that there were neither contracts with construction companies, nor invoices, nor communications of the start of work to the Municipalities. In some cases, the cadastral data indicated were totally invented; in others, the applicants had no title to the declared properties.
From building bonuses to citizenship income
The illicitly obtained funds were then “cleaned” through bank transfers to the cooperative managed by the same suspects, which is why the accusation of self-laundering was triggered, in addition to that of undue receipt of public funds. Paradoxically, while he collected hundreds of thousands of euros from construction bonuses, one of the two suspects also regularly received Citizenship Income.