Usury, extortion and pandemic.
In 2020, 23.2 million euros to the victims
The usurers of the popular districts arrested in Bari.
They also speculated on the lockdown
Sicily, loans at usurious rates to merchants in crisis, loan shark arrested
Coronavirus, CEI: usury alert, six million families at risk
Marco Baldini: "I no longer play but I am haunted by debt, hunted alive"
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10 June 2021 The Finance Police vanquished a band of usurers in Palermo that applied interest rates up to 140 percent per year, to obtain which the suspects also exercised threats against the victims. The Gdf, delegated by the Public Prosecutor's Office, issued an order for the application of precautionary measures against 5 subjects under various investigations for criminal association, abusive exercise of financial activity, usury, extortion and self-laundering. With the same provision, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure of assets in the availability of the suspects for a total estimated value of approximately 500 thousand euros.
The head of the criminal group - according to what was reconstructed by the investigators - was Salvatore Cillari, brother of a life sentence. Among the dozens of victims also the radio host and showman Marco Baldini and entrepreneurs in the sector of the furniture and antiques trade in difficulty.
The provision reads that the tenant - until June 2018 - was "in debt" with Cillari for the sum of 60 thousand euros. And Cillari reminded him insistently: "How did Marco end up with this money? Not even a lira", Cillari told him, not knowing he was being intercepted. "See you tomorrow, don't worry," replied Baldini. But the debt was not paid and the moneylender, on the phone in June 2018, continued to pursue the victim. "Marco, see that I loved you and respected you like a brother Marco ... and you can't treat me like that ... I say ... Wednesday I'm in Rome and I'm there until Friday". "So I'll see you tomorrow, don't worry," Baldini replied. Three months later Cillari continued to pursue him: "You always give me news, but then you leave me in the lurch.You say you had to take the money ... it's been seven months ... you don't take anything ... in fact almost a year ".
There are 5 precautionary measures carried out by the Guardia di Finanza of the provincial command of Palermo as part of the investigation of the usury circuit in the Sicilian capital and beyond. Cillari ended up in prison, three suspects were instead subjected to house arrest: Gabriele Cillari, Matteo Reina and Giovanni Cannatella.
The charges alleged for various reasons are those of criminal association, abusive exercise of financial activity, usury, extortion and self-laundering. On the other hand, the measure of the prohibition of residence in the territory of the municipality of Palermo was applied to Achille Cuccia. The investigations of the Economic - Financial Police Unit of Palermo were launched in the period November 2019 / December 2020, with the aid of telephone and environmental wiretapping, stalking, stalking, video footage, examinations of financial flows.
According to what was reconstructed by the investigators, the boss of the group was Salvatore Cillari. The head - it is explained - at least starting from 2016, is accused of having disbursed money loans with the application of interest rates, including usurious ones, towards a wide audience of subjects, orbiting in the Palermo and Roman area, for a total amount of approximately € 150,000.
Part of the illicit proceeds would then be "self-laundered" by his son Gabriele, an active "collaborator" of his father in criminal actions, in an economic activity in the catering sector in the midst of the Palermo "nightlife". The other associates would have operated in various capacities as intermediaries in the mechanism underlying the disbursement of money loans, coming into contact with the "victims", proposing "repayment plans", as well as conveying "messages" for compliance with the deadline of the agreed installments.
The Gico of the Economic - Financial Police Unit of Palermo has ascertained that the serious state of need experienced by the subjects who requested the money loans, also continued in the lockdown period caused by the epidemiological emergency from Covid-19. The investigators verified the existence of a professional system based on the issuance of postdated checks used to guarantee the loans disbursed, as well as on cash donations, without any type of traceability, with the aim of "shielding" the passage of money. The application of interest rates that would have reached 140 percent per annum, to obtain which the suspects also exercised threats against the victims.
Angelini: "Victims denounce"
"We have identified about twenty victims, but we believe there may be many more. The invitation to anyone who has been involved is to contact us in order to find any possible form of help. For them there is the possibility of accessing important forms of economic support thanks to the funds provided for the victims of usury ". Colonel Gianluca Angelini, commander of the economic and financial police unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Palermo, says this after the blitz that vanquished a band of usurers active between the Sicilian capital and Rome.
Angelini then underlines: "The risks of usury have significantly increased following the economic crisis connected to the health emergency due to the pandemic still in progress and for this reason the investigative effort is constant to counter any attempt by criminals to exploit the difficulties of families and enterprises to obtain further profits ".
"Usury represents a safe form of investment for criminals, capable of generating very high earnings in a short time that are often also used to finance commercial activities, polluting the healthy economic fabric with illicit capital that alters the rules of the market and healthy competition, to the detriment of honest economic operators, whose protection is a priority for the action of the Guardia di Finanza ", goes on.