A huge scam through the Energy Efficiency Certificates (Tee) also known as white certificates which would have generated an increase in energy bills over the last few years.
Article Key Points
It was discovered by the Guardia di Finanza of Aosta which triggered it 22 arrests between Italy and Germany, in addition to the seizure of assets for 41 million euro. A total of 113 people are under investigation. The charges include criminal association, aggravated fraud to obtain public funds and money laundering. The facts date back to the period 2016-2020. The investigation was launched in July 2019. The alleged fraud developed around the mechanism of the so-called "white certificates" (or Tee, Energy Efficiency Certificates).
It is a'international operation which, thanks to the coordination of the European Agency for Judicial Cooperation – Eurojust, was developed in close synergy with the German authorities with the establishment of a joint investigative team between the Public Prosecutor's Office of Aosta and that of Duisburg.
Along with the arrests, dozens of other searches and seizures of current accounts, financial availability, Real estate and cryptocurrencies, up to the value of 41 million euro, or the equivalent of the sums obtained through the fraud carried out and those laundered.
Thanks to the investigation, started in July 2019 by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Aosta, a scam was discovered carried out by a criminal association based in the province of Turin, based on the mechanism of the so-called "white certificates" (or TEE, Energy Efficiency Certificates), the main energy efficiency promotion tool in Italy, introduced into our legal system starting in 2005.
The mechanism is based on the obligation, on the part of electricity and gas distribution companies with more than 50 thousand end customers, to achieve specific energy saving targets annually. These can fulfill their obligation by implementing 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 Company (ESCo.), companies that voluntarily choose to implement projects to reduce consumption in end-use energy.
WHITE CERTIFICATES: WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW THEY WORK
The Gestore dei Servizi Energetici Spa (GSE), a publicly owned company, recognizes both the distribution companies and the ESCo. a value in certificates corresponding to the energy savings resulting from the interventions carried out. The certificates are then freely tradable on the Energy Efficiency Certificates market managed by the Energy Markets Manager Spa (GME).
The mechanism ends with the annual presentation of the "white certificates" to the GSE by the distribution companies which, in this way, demonstrate the achievement of the pre-established savings objectives and, at the same time, acquire the right to obtain a monetary tariff contribution from the Fund for Energy and Environmental Services (CSEA).
The amount of the public contribution paid by the Fund is based on the market value of the “white certificates” traded and is ultimately financed by the entire community, through the levies made on energy bills under the heading “system charges” (for electricity, tariff component UC7).
The investigation, initially coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Aosta and, in the final phase, by that of Turin, began in Municipality of Saint-Christophe, where the Finance Police discovered the first of the eight Ghost Esco identified overall throughout the entire activity.
Lacking any operational structure and managed by a mere front man, the Aosta Valley company, located inside an abandoned warehouse, managed to unduly obtain, through 26 false projects presented to the GSE, approximately 27.000 “white certificates”, resold at a value of just over 8 million euros.
At this stage, the involvement of some German companies emerged, which, in order to allow the Aosta Valley ESCo to justify its apparent operability, issued the latter with several invoices for consultancy services never provided, for more than one million euros.
Subsequent investigations – with financial investigations, telephone and environmental interceptions, use of computer interceptors – have allowed us to trace the existence of a criminal association that, from an anonymous office in Turin, managed, in addition to the one in Aosta Valley, seven other ESCos. formally located in the provinces of Milan, Turin, Varese, Asti, Vercelli and Biella, in reality real empty boxes used for the sole purpose of obtaining and exchanging “white certificates”.
All of this – as the investigating judge notes in the Order – was made possible by “exploiting the flaws in the legislative system for incentivizing global energy savings”, if one considers that the accreditation phases at the GSE, as well as the presentation and evaluation of the projects took place exclusively online, without any actual feedback on the field.
WHITE CERTIFICATES: A 27 MILLION EURO SCAM
The maxi Fraud was carried out by the identified ESCo., unduly obtaining white certificates for a total value of 27 million euros, financed, as mentioned, also at the expense of the end users, through the levies made on energy bills under the heading "system charges" (for electricity, tariff component UC7). In total, to carry out the Fraud, 95 false projects were presented regarding work never carried out (mainly replacement of boilers, insulation of walls, thermal insulation) on properties that actually exist on the national territory which, together with unaware companies and individuals, were systematically identified through simple searches on the web.
Of the illicit proceeds, amounting to over 27 million euros, 14 million were laundered through a proven system of false invoicing between the eight ESCos and numerous compliant Italian and foreign companies, or those set up specifically for this purpose. The money, from time to time rapidly cleared on accountthe open ones in Albania, Bulgaria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Malta, Principality of Monaco, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Hungary, it returned to Italy in cash, through couriers, to then be reinvested in financial instruments, cryptocurrencies and luxury real estate including two villas Ischia and Ventotene.
The subjects investigated for money laundering activities, all affected by the measure of precautionary custody in prison, reside in the provinces of Turin, Brescia, Naples, Salerno, Foggia and Barletta-Andria-Trani; among them there are also an accountant and a bank employee while two other cash couriers, also arrested for money laundering, were receiving the Citizen's Income.
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Article published on November 23, 2021 - 08:34
