The military personnel of the Guardia di Finanza Company of Gorizia, following separate investigations conducted between 2016 and 2019 as part of a large-scale judicial police operation called “MADE IN”, aimed at verifying the exact indication of origin of goods imported into the national territory through border crossings located in Friuli Venezia Giulia, discovered the illicit marketing of 4.800.630 products, with a commercial value of over 16 million euros, bearing, together with the Italian tricolour, false wording such as, for example, “MADE IN ITALY”, “ITALIAN PRODUCT”, “100% ITALIAN”, “ITALIAN STYLE”, “ITALIAN CRAFTSMANSHIP”.
Part of the illicitly traded goods, quantified in 348.034 products and 217.463 kg of goods, were subjected to probative seizure.
66 individuals, almost all of Italian nationality, were therefore reported to the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Gorizia for the crime of false indication of Italian origin. They were the directors of the companies importing the products on which signs and indications were applied abroad that were such as to mislead final consumers as to the origin of the goods.
Furthermore, 35 companies with headquarters in various provinces of the national territory, including Pordenone, Treviso, Venice, Vicenza, Verona, Bergamo, Monza Brianza, Milan, Mantua, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Ascoli Piceno, Fermo, Cosenza, have been reported to the Judicial Authority for corporate liability resulting from criminal violations by directors. Various categories of products were seized and fraudulently traded: clothing (underwear, footwear, jackets, shirts, coats, school aprons), accessories (bags, scarves, umbrellas), electrical items (sockets, switches, plates, LEDs, lamps), yarn (balls of cotton), religious items (crucifixes), food products (chilli peppers), products for animals (bibs), for construction (bitumen, hydro-insulating materials), for the home (plastic glasses and plates, wooden cutting boards, sponges, furniture components, sinks, pellets, wooden logs, charcoal), for agriculture (fertilizers).
The investigations, based on risk analyses derived from territorial control, conducted through documentary acquisitions and the execution of over fifty searches ordered by the Gorizia AG at the offices of importing companies, have allowed us to identify the existence of a widespread fraud mechanism, consisting in the importation into the national territory of significant quantities of products, made in Eastern European countries, but bearing, together with the tricolour, false indications of Italian origin. The investigations were conducted by verifying, upon entry into the State, the origin of the goods manufactured totally or partially both in EU states such as Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and in the countries of the former Yugoslavia that have not yet joined the European Union (Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), where many Italian companies, thanks to the low cost of labor and tax advantages, have totally delocalized the production phases, leaving only the administrative and commercial offices in Italy, but continuing to fraudulently report the "MADE IN ITALY" on the products manufactured abroad. The selection of vehicles to be checked took place mainly at the Gorizia – Sant'Andrea border crossing and the Villesse and Monfalcone – Lisert motorway toll booths, as well as in the customs areas at the Gorizia customs gate.
The service activity carried out by the Guardia di Finanza of Gorizia is part of the constant checks on goods that transit into the State through border crossings and are aimed at protecting consumers and honest economic operators from those who attempt to profit by fraudulently using any reference, such as "MADE IN ITALY", capable of misleading about the Italian origin of the goods.
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