Twelve people held responsible – in various capacities – for the crimes of “criminal association, ideological and material falsehood, abusive practice of the healthcare profession, illegal access to a computer system, aggravated fraud to the detriment of the Healthcare System, personal aiding and abetting, embezzlement and corruption”. They carried out the order, with which the investigating judge. of Reggio Calabria has ordered the application of coercive and interdictive precautionary measures, the Nas of Reggio Calabria, supported in the executive phase by soldiers of the Carabinieri Group for the Protection of Health of Naples and by the territorially competent departments of the Carabinieri.
The measurements
House arrest against 4 people, notification of the interdictory measure to 3 subjects, the same number of obligations to report to the police and ban from professional and healthcare activities for 2, held responsible for “criminal association, ideological and material falsehood, abusive exercise of the healthcare profession, abusive access to the IT system, fraud, personal aiding and abetting, embezzlement and corruption”.
The criminal conspiracy
The measures constitute the outcome of the complex investigative activity following which serious evidence was gathered regarding the existence of a criminal association operating in Reggio Calabria and its province, composed of: the owner and employees of a transport company, the sales manager for the Calabria Region of a multinational operating in the field of the supply of medical gases for oxygen therapy and, again, pharmacists, specialist doctors employed by the ASP, general practitioners, various fixers and patients conniving.
The elements collected, through detailed traditional and technical investigations, have made it possible to reconstruct the operational methods of the criminal association, which, through the use of therapeutic plans, medical prescriptions and false transport documents, certified the delivery – in fact never taking place – of numerous cylinders of medical gas (generally used for pneumological and/or terminal pathologies) to compliant, unaware or non-existent patients, placing the cost of the aforementioned medical device at the expense of the National Health System and of the Regional.
The seizure of the company
In addition to the personal coercive and interdictory measures, the provision issued by the investigating judge ordered the seizure of the transport company responsible for the management, marketing and distribution of the medical gas, as well as the sum of €48,000.00 from the multinational supplier of the aforementioned medical device.
THE NAMES
An illicit system unmasked by the Reggio Calabria Prosecutor’s Office, led by Giuseppe Borrelli, and blocked by investigations by the Nas carabinieri. Four are under house arrest: Francesco and Fortunato Macheda, Stefania Callipari and Giuseppe Villa; temporary ban on Cristian Aragona, Maria Anna Zumbo and Antonio Demetrio Pellicanò from carrying out certain professional or entrepreneurial activities for 12 months; obligation to report to the judicial police for Giovanni Mallamaci, Isabella Maida and Rossana Spina and suspension from the exercise of public office and profession for 12 months for Francesco Scopelliti and Attilio Fulgido.
At the same time, the seizure of the transport company responsible for the management, marketing and distribution of the medical gas was ordered, as well as the sum of 48 thousand euros from the multinational supplier of the medical device.