Bribes, investigated in Milan 10 Leonardo managers and two Google companies.
Bribes, investigated in Milan 10 Leonardo managers and two Google companiesAt the center of the story, which sees Leonardo injured party, bribes and sums of money from tax fraud that were transferred to tax havens through online platforms.
The military of the guardia di finanza of Milan have acquired, in the offices of Leonardo in Rome and Pomigliano D'arco (Naples), documents as part of an investigation by PM Gaetano Ruta for money laundering, tax crimes and corruption between individuals. Offense, the latter, of which 10 managers of the group respond, which is an injured party. Also investigate Google Ireland and Google Payments: they would have allowed "the transfer of sums of money from tax fraud".
The payments of the alleged bribes were made thanks to the Google Payments service, which allowed to hide the identity of the people involved. This is the stratagem that was used to pay bribes, identified by the Milanese pm Gaetano Ruta, holder of an investigation for money laundering, tax crimes and corruption between individuals that also lapped Leonardo, considered by the prosecutor's office to be the offended party.
10 group managers are being investigated in various ways. In addition to them, 4 other people and 3 companies are being investigated, including Google Ireland and Google Payments, a platform that would have been used to execute transactions as a result of corruption, preventing the identification of those who made the transfers. For this reason, the military of the economic and financial police unit of the guardia di finanza, went to the offices of Rome and Pomigliano D'arco (Naples) and acquired documents useful for the investigation.
Some executives of the supplier company Trans-Part srl, based in Milan and which is under investigation, would have paid the managers of the ex Finmeccanica group regalia and compensation to obtain orders, even in the face of fictitious contracts. A round of bribes in the form of extra or monthly or annual compensation, "out-of-the-bag" commissions on awarded contracts and gifts such as fuel vouchers or to be spent in computer, telephone, tv and household appliances stores, and then valuables such as branded pens.
According to the reconstruction of the yellow flames, in fact, the black funds were distracted by commissions paid by Leonardo and transferred with this ploy to tax havens and then make them disappear. At least 6 million euros would amount to the funds left in this way from Italy to abroad from 2012 to 2018. A sea of money finished, through a US-based company of the Transpart group, in offshore companies based in Panama, Great Britain and Ireland. The transfers returned to Italy, instead, would amount to 400 thousand euros, but are figures likely to increase since it is still to establish the total value of the corrupt system.
An ingenious system that would not have been possible without the technology offered by the giant Tech Mountain View that "allowed the transfer of sums of money the proceeds of tax fraud, obstructing the identification of the criminal origin," writes the pm Route in the order of performance of acts and documents delivered to Leonardo. "In particular - it still reads in the document-the remittances took place through the interposition of the company Google Pay Limited Ltd, without it being possible to trace the identification" of those who made the transfers.
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