Another scandal in Italy! Now for money laundering

Gabriele Gravinapresident of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), was entered in the register of Rome Prosecutor’s Office as suspected of having committed crimes of money laundering and embezzlement, since 2018, in the granting of television rights to Lega Pro (Third Division, category of which he is president), in a sale of old books and in the purchase of a apartment in Milan.

The investigation, according to local media, controls the possible fraudulent award by Gravinealso vice president of UEFA, of the 2018 contest for the UEFA television channel Pro League (Serie C) to ‘Isg Ginko’, a sale of a collection (worth close to a million euros) of 16th century books, of which he was an expert, which was never closed – and which generated close to 300,000 euros just by receiving a deposit – and the purchase of an apartment in Milan with that money for the son of one of his partners.

Gravinewho came on Wednesday afternoon to voluntarily testify at Rome Prosecutor’s Office To clarify the rumors that the Italian press began to publish, the authorities will officially register him in the suspect register before an interrogation that lasted more than an hour, according to the aforementioned sources.

The authorities are investigating three operations to clarify if they are related to the same flow of money that would have resulted in money laundering and embezzlement of funds.

The purchase of an apartment in Milan is the priority of the investigation due to the possible territorial jurisdiction that the file may be transferred to Milan Prosecutor’s Office.

The investigation began at the request of National Anti-Mafia Directorate in Perugia and framed in what is known in Italy as the ‘Dossieraggio’ case, which began just a few days ago, when it was discovered that a police officer had obtained sensitive data from dozens of politicians and famous people in the country.

Pasquale Strianoan agent of the Guardia de Finanza (fiscal police) currently serving in National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Officecarried out at least 800 irregular accesses to the Italian entity’s data bank over several months.

Among their searches are many members of the current Government, such as the Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto -whose complaint started the investigations-, as well as the former prime minister Matteo Renzi or the last lover of Silvio Berlusconi, Marta Fascina.

So far no new interrogations have been scheduled or meetings have been planned between the authorities of Perugia and Rome to speed up the case process.