Thanks to counterfeit identity cards, false documents and the complacency of a municipal and regional employee, they would have obtained numerous loans from credit institutions for about half a million euros.
The Carabinieri of the Bagheria company carried out a precautionary custody order in prison against five people, accused of criminal association aimed at fraud and substitution of person, manufacture of false documents, corruption for an act contrary to official duties and unauthorized access to a computer system. Another 7 people are being investigated in the operation. The provision was issued by the investigating judge of the Palermo court, at the request of the prosecutor based on the investigations conducted by the Bagheria company between December 2019 and August 2020.
According to the investigations, the alleged organization has carried out serious scams against numerous credit institutions with the same modus operandi. The suspects allegedly stole the identity of unaware victims of the scam, mostly wealthy retired professionals. With the counterfeit documents and false documentation, personal financing practices were started, between 12 thousand and 80 thousand euros or for the purchase of cars, which would then be immediately resold to third parties.
The alleged gang would have included an employee of the Registry Office of the Municipality of Palermo who would have been responsible for providing the details of the victims, necessary to carry out the replacement of the person (personal data, marital status, number of identification documents). An activity that would have been carried out through unauthorized access to the computer systems used by him for service reasons and upon payment of an illegal fee.
An official of the Department of Rural and Territorial Development of the Sicilian Region, the latter already banned from public offices because convicted of fraud, would instead have provided the landline telephone number of his office, to be indicated in the stipulation of the contract to guarantee the loan, to to deal with any control calls from credit institutions, so as to be able to ensure by telephone that the applicants were regional employees.
