A former official of the Calabria Regional Museums Directorate of the Ministry of Culture, retired since January 1st, is investigated, together with six other peopleas part of an investigation coordinated by the Cosenza Prosecutor’s Office and conducted by the Carabinieri of the Cosenza Cultural Heritage Protection Unit which this morning led to the seizure of 63,588 euros.
The contested charges, for various reasons, are fraud to the detriment of the State, ideological falsehood committed by the public official in public documents, receiving stolen goods and undue use and falsification of payment instruments other than cash. In addition to the seizure, performed in Cosenza, Rende and Aprigliano with the collaboration of the territorial police, 7 local and personal search decrees were also carried out.
The investigation by the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Cosenza began last April against the official of the Calabria Regional Museums Directorate of the Ministry of Culture who, according to the accusation, attesting to the falsehood in the documentation drawn up by him and signed in as manager of the meal voucher supply service, between 2021 and 2022 would have managed to have large sums of money credited in the form of vouchers to 18 electronic cards, registered in the name of unsuspecting employees of the same regional Museums directorate, serving in various locations in Calabria, who were not entitled to the benefit and in some cases had even been retired for many months.
From the investigations, according to the prosecution, it emerged that the official then improperly used the cards on which the amounts had been loaded and that the other suspects also did the same, some of whom were linked to the former official by family ties, to purchase groceries in various supermarkets in the province of Cosenza.