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09. 03. 10. - 15:00

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09. 03. 10. - 15:00

Vienna 'centre of Mafia money-laundering operation'

Vienna was the linchpin of a Mafia money-laundering operation by Italian telecom firms between 2005 and 2007, it emerged yesterday (Mon).

News magazine Profil reported that the firms used Vienna banks to launder two billion Euros for the Italian mobsters.

The banks eventually alerted police, who froze the firms’ accounts, and Italian police pressed charges against ringleader Dario P., who is in detention in Rome. Police also began an investigation into 60 other suspected Mafia members.

The magazine said the Italian firm Fastweb, Italy’s second largest telecom company, and the firm Italia Splarkle used 14 bank accounts, all but two of which were at three Austrian banks, Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB), Bank Austria and the then named Anglo Irish Bank Austria, to launder the money.

RZB, which does most of its business with big firms, confirmed yesterday that three firms in the Italian telecom sector had begun to do business with it in December 2005. It added that their ties to Telecom Italia, a long-time core holder of Telekom Austria’s shares, had led it to evaluate those firms in an uncritical manner.

The rapid growth of transaction volume, however, caused RZB to suspect that something was amiss, and it notified police in 2007.

Italian police have pressed charges against more than 60 people, including politicians, lawyers and Fastweb founder Silvio Scaglia, on suspicion of money-laundering.

Italian Senator Nicola di Girolamo, who belongs to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party the People of Freedom, has been arrested. He is suspected of having been the southern Italian Ndrangheta Mafia’s political contact.

Profil said that Mafia had some 7,000 members divided among 90 clans.

Austrian Times

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