A network of 82 companies to scam Inps and its creditors

Hydra, a criminal monster with tentacles able to reach many Italian regions, has its head in Varese. Hydra is the operation of the Finance Police of Varese, conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s office of Varese, and its name comes from a comic book character of the 60s.

It is a criminal association that the Public Prosecutor’s office of Varese, represented by Daniela Borgonovo and her deputy Annalisa Palomba, does not hesitate to describe as something able to damage the entire community.

This is evident if we analyse the inquiry: the 9 people, who got arrested today, Monday 19^th March, among those there are many accountants, represent the ultimate proof of a system that was damaging the free competition and each taxpayer, ruining something sacred: Inps’s money.

The social security institution is, in fact, particularly damaged by those hundreds of business relations, that were activated within the law, and that allowed workers to receive the New social check for employment (the so-called “Naspi”), once fired: the money was transferred into prepaid cards and liquidated by Inps.

The sum was then divided between the arrested people, and the “workers”, for a total of 913 thousand euros.

This was possible thanks to 82 controlled companies, among which many Ltds but also individual enterprises, which were bankrupt or with financial problems, and were an easy target for criminals.

Thanks to these conditions, not only scams on unemployment but also goods purchased, which were paid with uncovered cheques, were possible. These were bank transfers guaranteed by fake sureties or transfers that were initiated and then cancelled. The total amount of these scams is 3 million euros.

The companies controlled by the “Hydra system” purchased various things: from televisions to fuel, from metals to flue pipes. These were purchased and never paid, just like the pellet supply, the material that led to the Public Prosecutor’s office’s inquiry two years ago, when an entrepreneur from Varese reported it to revenue officers.

The illegally purchased goods were then hidden. Part of these were found by the revenue officers and given back to the legitimate owners.

Something similar happened to cars: in this case, the vehicles were leased, then the companies, which were shutting down in the meantime, paid only the first payments without completing all of them. The cars were sent to Bulgaria, where a company of one of the arrested people was situated.

The arrested people are professionals from the provinces of Varese and Reggio Calabria.

Almost half of the companies, which were targeted by the criminal association that specialised in scams of social distributions, and illegal and evidentiary bankrupt, are in Milan. 20% are in Varese, 17% in Reggio Calabria, and in other cities, like Lecco, Bergamo, Lodi and Pavia in Lombardy; Prato, Cagliari, Modena, Turin, Alessandria, Genoa, Pesaro, Urbino and Taranto in the rest of the country.

Overall there are 123 investigated people: promoters, organisers and those who took part in the criminal association, as well as those who received unemployment benefits.

The damages to the State and to commercial companies amount to 7 million and 600 thousand euros.