The "F24 fraudsters," discovered yesterday by the Guardia di Finanza with 16 precautionary measures, had their headquarters in two accounting firms in Naples and Aversa. They had managed to deceive the tax authorities by declaring nonexistent credits for their clients, thus offsetting their debts to the Treasury. It all began with the complaint filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office by several Neapolitan entrepreneurs who, upon contacting the two firms, received a tax bill with disputed amounts, which, according to the accountants, had been erased. Thus, it was established that what the professionals believed to be a victory was actually a fraud. Five hundred people were involved, and five thousand F24s were filed between 2013 and 2016, offsetting nonexistent credits. In essence, the tax authorities assessed a debt of several thousand euros, and the accountants eliminated it with false credit declarations. The gang was led by Renato De Luca, one of the arrested accountants; Guglielmo Di Guida, an employee of the Revenue Agency working at the Naples 3 territorial office; and Vincenzo Campoluongo, a tax consultant for the Aversa-based company Tfc Professional srls, who was in close contact with Renato De Luca, the organization's leader and owner of Dnl srls.
Many of the taxpayers were aware of the illegal situations that had been created and others were unaware of what was happening and paid the very “salty” fee to the two professionals who took 15 percent of what they had managed (pretendly) to cancel. Also involved were an official of the Revenue Agency who had the task of reporting to the two accountants the taxpayers who were about to receive the Agency's assessment, two lawyers, who worked in front of the tax commissions and three entrepreneurs, one of whom was from Naples and worked in the metals sector, who made fraudulent compensations for over 6 million euros. All with false tax returns. How did they do it? The investigators have it, first and foremost General Luigi D'Alfonso and Commander Giovanni Salerno. Before the assessment arrived, the employee of the Revenue Agency, Guglielmo Di Guida, working at the territorial office of Naples 3, who procured clients for Vincenzo Campoluongo, tax consultant of the company Tfc Professional srls, of Aversa, in turn in close contact with Renato De Luca, the dominus of the organization and owner of Dnl srls, contacted the taxpayers and proposed an all-inclusive treatment. A complete package with which he indicated to potential clients the possibility of an appeal to the tax commission against the debt assessed by Equitalia and then the cancellation of everything. He did it thanks to the home banking system. Thanks to a series of accomplices and his employees (all of whom were recipients of the precautionary measure), he uploaded the false F24s. If the assessed debt was 10 thousand euros, he uploaded F24s for 10 thousand euros and one cent. The system recorded the payment and so the role was cancelled. The two lawyers then presented the cancellation to the tax commission and that was it, except for the investigations that followed. Five hundred taxpayers will now be contacted by the Revenue Agency and will have to pay taxes that had been cancelled.
The investigations revealed that Renato De Luca boasted about what he did. In a conversation, as reported by Il Roma, with an acquaintance who asked him for information about Vincenzo Campoluongo, another member of the gang, he proudly claimed to have solved a problem for him. “It was me with that appeal for VAT relief,” he told the acquaintance on the other end of the phone. “Campoluongo is my friend, I do all the paperwork for him, all of it comes to me, my love, we work together, it’s been a lifetime, it’s been three years. He comes to me and I do the paperwork for him. I keep all of Campoluongo’s clients, I keep them all.” In another conversation, De Luca also takes credit for canceling the collection roles of a Neapolitan taxpayer who had 11 million in debt: “I ‘stabbed’ him with all the bills, there’s always a solution, unfortunately there’s no solution except for health.” And again, speaking of a case of a client from Campoluongo, De Luca says: “Great, this one went well too, here, here, another one went well, I’ll keep all the papers and I’ll move on”. The investigators then consider another conversation significant, which also has a paradoxical tone. De Luca was speaking with his collaborator Luciano Rispoli, the recipient of the order from investigating judge Alfano. When asked what type of work he should indicate on the form to be presented to the bank, De Luca replied: “Thief”. Rispoli suggested indicating “Tax Consultant”, but he insisted: “Thief”. He was always very worried about being arrested for what he did and he told them so in a conversation. To Luciano De Rosa, an entrepreneur from a company in Naples, he said: “I’ll tell you something, I sleep with the nightmare that at five o’clock someone knocks on my door. Early in the morning. When five in the morning passes I think: 'Okay, it went well today too”. After the presentation of the fraudulent F24 form, De Luca waited for Equitalia to release the role before communicating to the client the successful outcome of the consultation and collecting the agreed fee. In the case in which the practice concerned a taxpayer procured by Campoluongo, he updated the latter: "Eh, no, you can tell him that in a week the problem will be solved, he has to wait five days".
The documents in the provision contain dozens of wiretaps and also many messages that the members of the gang exchanged among themselves during the negotiations of the practices to be entrusted to the consultancy and accounting firms.
THOSE INVOLVED IN THE INVESTIGATION
DE LUCA RENATO NAPLES 27/11/1974
CAMPOLUONGO VINCENZO NAPLES 08/04/1965
CAMPOLOLUONGO LUIGI NAPLES 15/04/1993
BY GUIDE GUGLIELMO NAPOLI 06/04/1954
FERRIERI GIUSEPPE CROTONE 04/12/1968
ACCARDO ANTONY SOMMA 19/08/1992
BISHOP RITA NAPLES 18/05/1983
DE ROSA LUCIANO NAPLES 30/11/1972
GRAGNANIELLO CARMINE NAPLES 03/09/1982
SANTONASTANO GIANLUCA NAPLES 19/09/1988
MAFFEI MICHELANGELO NAPLES 07/07/1972 NAPLES
MAYER SALVATORE NAPLES 06/08/1994
MONA SOFIA NAPLES 11/06/1981
MUSELLA LUCA NAPLES 21/08/1983
RISPOLI RAFFAELE NAPLES 14/06/1974
GAROFALO CARMINE SAN GIUSEPPE 18/12/1965
ABBOT ANTONINO NAPLES 09/05/1976
CARDONE GIOVANNI VILLARICCA 12/05/1952
RICCI PIETRO PORTICI 10/07/1974
RUSSO GIOVANNI ROME 01/06/1954
ZIMBALDI UMBERTO CASORIA 25/04/1960
SALZANO MARCO AFRAGOLA 26/12/1968
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