EPPO

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Venice (Italy) has secured convictions against three defendants, two administrators and one employee of a consortium company, for the misappropriation of EU funds intended for the development of the Italian liquefied natural gas (LNG) network.

Between 2016 and 2021, the now bankrupt consortium company received €6 351 088,56 in EU funding to manage and promote several projects related to the construction and operation of natural gas refuelling infrastructure near ports. These projects aimed to support the transition from traditional maritime fuels and included, among others, the development of prototypes for liquefied natural gas containers.

The funding was granted under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.

The investigation, carried out with the support of the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Venice and Rome, showed that a significant portion of the funds (€5 586 487,03) had been diverted from their intended purposes. The company lacked the organisational structure, technical expertise and qualified personnel necessary to implement the projects. Moreover, EU funds were used to pay individuals without the appropriate technical skills, to finance activities unrelated to the projects, and to cover personal expenses. The consortium company was declared bankrupt by Padua Court on 3 June 2021.

The investigation also uncovered the use of invoices for non-existent transactions and the falsification of accounting records, thereby misleading both the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and CINEA.

On 9 April 2026, the Court of Padua convicted the three defendants, sentencing them to prison terms ranging from one year and eight months to six years and two months. One person was acquitted. Two other suspects opted for a plea bargain at an earlier stage. The Court also ordered the confiscation of €1.97 million.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Turin (Italy) has dismantled a tobacco smuggling network operating across Italy, France, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (UK), following a coordinated crackdown that led to multiple arrests today. Over 40 tonnes of illicit tobacco products were also seized in this investigation, code-named ‘Borotalco’ (talcum powder).

The investigation started following the analysis of suspicious container movements arriving at the Port of Genoa (region of Liguria), making it possible to identify a transnational criminal organisation with the operational base located in the UK and connections across Europe, Africa and Asia.

Based on the evidence, the tobacco was declared as coming from Armenia, Dubai (UAE) and Spain, and entered the Italian territory through the Port of Genoa, using maritime and commercial routes designed to evade customs inspections. These routes passed through Georgia, Kenya, the Netherlands and Turkey, in order to hide the true origin of the illicit goods. The organisation established a network of associates across these countries, with the cigarettes ultimately destined for the black market in several European countries. 

A company in the Genoa area was allegedly used for shipment notifications in customs procedures, to avoid inspections. The company also made available its warehouses in the province of Alessandria, in close proximity with the Port of Genoa, for unloading and storing the smuggled tobacco, until transportation to other destinations, as well as for storing cover materials used to conceal the illicit cargo.  The goods were declared as being construction materials, which were used to disguise the cartons of cigarettes. In addition, false bottoms were used as hidden compartments built into containers to conceal the tobacco.

To hide the identities of the shipment consignees in customs documentation, an IT specialist from the Campania region created and managed fake websites and email addresses. It is understood that the criminal organisation also used encrypted communication platforms, to avoid surveillance by law enforcement. 

Five suspects in pre-trial detention

Following a request from the EPPO, the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the Court of Genoa ordered the pre-trial detention of five suspects, detained today in Italy, UK and Poland, and the seizure of assets worth approximately €2.5 million. 

Earlier in this investigation, enforcement activities were carried out at the Port of Genoa, leading to the seizure of close to 41 tonnes of manufactured cigarettes, with an estimated loss of customs duties, excise duties and VAT exceeding €10 million. The market price in Italy for the seized goods is estimated at around €15 million, which could double or even triple if the shipments had reached their final destination.

The investigation is supported by the international anti-mafia operational network @ON and by Europol, with additional backing from national law enforcement agencies – highlighting the value of cross-border cooperation against organised crime.  The cooperation with UK’s HM Revenue & Customs and Switzerland’s Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) was also crucial to the inquiry. 

All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Palermo (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Palermo carried out searches and seized a clandestine cigarette factory, several storage facilities, and 25 tonnes of cigarettes and shredded tobacco.

The factory, located in Castagnaro near Verona, was equipped with all the necessary machinery for large-scale production, with the capacity to produce up to 4 million cigarettes a day. The estimated value of the site is over €2 million.

The searches, which involved over 70 officers, were conducted in the premises of the factory and at warehouses in Monselice and Terrassa Padovana, in the province of Padua. In addition to the clandestine factory, 17 tonnes of cigarettes, 8 tonnes of shredded tobacco, 108 pallets of precursors, and 31 pallets of materials for tobacco production were successfully seized.

Upon entry, 11 individuals of Bulgarian and Ukrainian nationality were found inside the factory and were reported to the national authorities, along with the 2 Italian owners of the factory, for the crimes of possession of smuggled tobacco products and trademark counterfeiting.

The discovery follows several months of investigative work. By following the complete supply chain from several cigarette seizures conducted in the Palermo region, the investigators were able to identify the manufacturing locations, despite the rigorous precautions taken by the transporters to conceal the production sites, including the use of jammers to hide the communications between the members of the investigated criminal group. 

Had the seized cigarettes been placed on the market, they would have resulted in a loss of revenue amounting to €3.9 million for the EU and national budgets. The illegal factory was capable of generating an illicit profit of €700 000 per day, exceeding €240 million annually, causing an estimated damage to public finances of approximately €160 million per year.

All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Naples and Venice (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) in Naples and Caserta executed a seizure order targeting assets worth more than €32 million in an investigation into a large-scale VAT carousel fraud in the IT sector.

The preventive seizure order, issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the Court of Naples, concerns five companies suspected of involvement in a complex international tax fraud scheme.

The suspected fraud scheme allegedly relied on numerous Italian and foreign shell companies, lacking any real business structure. These companies were allegedly used to simulate commercial transactions and generate undue tax advantages. Moreover, it is believed that companies established in several EU Member States, including the Netherlands, Germany, Romania and Hungary, were used to initiate and sustain fictitious transactions, in order to complicate the reconstruction of financial flows.

Overall, invoices for non-existent transactions exceeding €500 million were identified. These were allegedly used to create fictitious VAT credits and artificially reduce the tax burden of companies benefiting from the fraudulent scheme.

There is reason to believe that in many cases the goods involved were never physically moved, remaining in the same logistics platforms while multiple fictitious transactions were recorded between the companies involved.

Based on the evidence gathered, the court ordered the preventive seizure of shareholdings in five companies allegedly involved in the scheme, four business complexes and an industrial warehouse located in Somma Vesuviana (Naples), up to a total value exceeding €32 million. 

The measure follows developments in another investigation we previously reported on, and which targets a criminal network specialised in intra-EU VAT carousel fraud in the trade of electronic products and printer consumables. The alleged network involves a total of 64 suspects operating mainly in the province of Naples.

All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Turin (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Biella seized assets worth €1.98 million in an investigation into suspected fraud involving funds from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for Italy.

The investigation, code-named Nuovi Orizzonti (‘New Horizons’), concerns a suspected organised criminal group that allegedly defrauded public budgets by obtaining RRF funds and by claiming tax credits for fictitious energy efficiency works. According to the investigation, the suspects, tax advisors and accounting service centres operating across Italy, set up companies in the names of strawmen and falsified the companies’ accounts to prove non-existent financial solidity and access almost €2 million in public financing and fiscal incentives, of which €125 000 from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for Italy.

Last week, the Guardia di Finanza of Biella, supported by their colleagues from Piedmonte, Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany, Basilicata and Calabria, executed a preventive order to seize up to €1.98 million in assets, issued by the Court of Biella. Amongst the assets frozen, belonging to 12 individuals, are balances of current bank accounts, three properties, two luxury cars and shares in three companies. 

This seizure is the second one in this ongoing investigation, as previously reported in July 2025, when searches and seizures worth €3.3 million took place.

All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.