Criminal association, aggravated fraud to obtain public funds and money laundering.
These are the charges that 22 people arrested between Italy and Germany have to answer for in various ways as a result of an operation by the Aosta Finance Police on an alleged maxi fraud in the energy sector that generated the increase in bills.
The facts date back to the period 2016-2020. The investigation, called the "White Paper" and conducted together with the German authorities, was launched in July 2019.
The alleged scam developed around the mechanism of the so-called "white certificates" (or Tee, Energy Efficiency Certificates): electricity and gas distribution companies with more than 50,000 end customers are obliged to achieve certain savings targets annually energy or by carrying out energy efficiency projects that give the right to "white certificates", or by purchasing the certificates themselves from other operators in the sector, the so-called Energy Service Companies (ESCo.).
The investigation began in Saint Christophe (Aosta), where the first of the eight ESCos was discovered. ghost: with no operational structure and managed by a nominee, the company was able to unduly obtain approximately 27,000 "white certificates", resold for a value of just over 8 million euros. In this phase, the involvement of some German companies emerged. The investigations made it possible to trace the existence of a criminal association which, from an anonymous office in Turin, managed, in addition to that of the Aosta Valley, another seven ESCos. in the provinces of Milan, Turin, Varese, Asti, Vercelli and Biella, "real empty boxes used for the sole purpose of obtaining and exchanging white certificates". Of the illicit proceeds, amounting to over 27 million euros, 14 million were laundered in various countries returning to Italy in cash to then be reinvested in financial instruments, cryptocurrencies and luxury properties including two villas in Ischia and Ventotene.
(Unioneonline / D)
