More than 20 suspects have been arrested by authorities in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia as part of a fraud investigation linked to the EU Recovery Fund.

The amount of the fraud is estimated at €600 million, Politico reports.

But what is more impressive is how much and what assets the police have seized. From apartments and villas to Rolex watches, gold and jewelry. And from cryptocurrencies to luxury cars: a Lamborghini, a Porsche and an Audi Q8.

The operation, at the request of EU prosecutors (EPPO), involved 150 officers from fraud police and financial police units. Eight of the suspects were arrested while 14 others were placed under house arrest.

Forged documents with artificial intelligence

Police said the scam was set up by “professionals” in applying for public funding. Their actions secured tens of millions of euros intended to improve the competitiveness and digitalisation of Italian companies.

The authorities mapped suspicious transactions and identified, as the Italian financial police said, “the legalisation of huge illegal profits made through a complex network of virtual companies set up in Italy, Austria, Slovakia and Romania”.

The ring used advanced technologies, spreading its tentacles across several countries. They had at their disposal cloud servers located in non-cooperative countries, assets in cryptocurrencies and used artificial intelligence methods to produce fake documents.

Organised crime

There has been a “war” between crime syndicates and the authorities in recent years, Politico writes, as the former have become increasingly adept at siphoning off EU development funds.

After all, organised crime has now put aside ‘traditional’ sources of income, such as robbery and extortion, turning its attention to EU subsidies, a lucrative and reliable income stream.

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This is confirmed by EPPO, which reported in its annual report that the number of investigations into fraud related to the Recovery Fund increased sharply in 2023.

Typically, in 2023 more than 200 investigations into fraud related to the Fund were opened across the EU, compared to just 15 investigations in 2022.

Italy is the largest beneficiary of the Recovery Fund as it will receive €191.5 billion in grants and loans. For this reason it is also under close scrutiny by prosecutors, with 179 pending investigations into the use of cash.