There are 72 people under investigation in the major investigation into illegal betting and the laundering of illicit proceeds in tax havens.
A joint venture between the Calabrian 'ndrangheta, Casalesi, Camorra and borderline figures from the province of Naples.
The business was based on a computer platform created in 2000 by a man well known to law enforcement, a Roman man accused of receiving stolen goods and already implicated in other investigations, but enhanced by another suspect to meet contemporary needs. This system, according to one estimate, allowed a community of millions of players spread across every corner of the globe to bet, even one-to-one, despite being thousands and thousands of kilometers apart.
It emerged during the investigations that yesterday allowed the DDA and the Carabinieri of Salerno to arrest 33 people believed to be linked to a criminal organization, with ramifications abroad, accused of having set up a multi-billion dollar illegal betting ring.
The head of the criminal association was found to be Luigi Giuseppe Cirillo, son of a boss, who, according to investigators, had created a real holding of “online gaming” (casino, Texas Holdem poker) by associating himself with the “dbgpoker” network, not authorized in Italy and also making use of the Casalese mafia. The games were also accessible through slot machines and totems mostly installed in the southern Italian areas where the pressure of organized crime was strongest.
The servers, according to the military of the Investigative Nucleus of Salerno, although coordinated by the Salernitano, precisely by Mercato San Severino, had been located in the so-called tax havens, such as Panama and the island of Curacao.
A pyramid system at the base of which was the player, the player, who in fact financed the online gaming activity. At the highest point, instead, the summit sold to the various management levels 'virtual' credits that, then, became 'real' thanks to the bets, online or at physical totems disconnected from the Monopolies network, of the final players. The estimated revenues were quantified, in two years, at over 5 billion euros and, if the games had been carried out in a legal manner, the Treasury would have collected around 500 million.
The Carabinieri also carried out a preventive seizure of 11 websites and two companies with registered offices in Mercato San Severino, in the Salerno area, and of 3 million euros against Luigi Giuseppe Cirillo and other people believed to be his front men. Cirillo, in the precautionary order, is considered the head and promoter of the criminal association because he allegedly created a holding company for illicit online gaming on the national and foreign territory, also taking advantage of the ties with the Casalesi.
Always according to the investigative theory and shared by the investigating judge, the pyramid system provided that, "at each level change - explains the Salerno prosecutor's office - a percentage would be paid for the service provided by each component of the gaming pyramid, depending on what was established in the 'contractualization' stage". Then, the significant share would have gone to the coffers of the casino, top level and global administrator.
Among the crimes charged to Cirillo are self-laundering for real estate investments made in Panama and illegal possession of a firearm. One of the suspects allegedly sold a Lamborghini Murcielago, fictitiously registered to a company registered in the Czech Republic, to a dealership in Turin.
The aggravating circumstance of mafia was contested for some crimes, in terms of facilitation to the Casalesi clan, because there would have been the "conscious supply - writes the Salerno prosecutor's office - of the illegal gaming platform to subjects close to it, who, on the basis of the findings, would have thus fed its coffers". The arrests of the people outside the national territory were carried out with the support of the service for international police cooperation of the Central Directorate of Criminal Police - Expert Office for Security in Romania.
The names of the 72 suspects
The investigating judge Gerardina Romaniello, at the request of the prosecutor Silvio Marco Guarriello and Giancarlo Russo, has entered 72 people in the register of suspects. These are: Alfonso Aliberti from Siano (Salerno), Francesco Aliberti, known as “uncle Franco” from Siano (Salerno); Michele Ambrosio of San Giuseppe Vesuviano; Gerardo Angiletta, known as “Dino” resident in Timisoara (Romania); Fabrizio Baldassari from Genzano (Rome); Riccardo Baldassari from Genzano (Rome); Giannalberto Campagna from Conselice (Ravenna); Lorenzo Carbone from Potenza; Emanuele Caridi from Fiumicino; Giuseppe Carnovale, known as “Pepo” or “Leonardo De Rossi” from Santa Caterina sullo Jonio; Francesco Carpenters of Baronissi; Giuseppe Caulo, from Pietragalla (Potenza); Gianfranco Cavallaro from Genoa; Fabrizio Ciampini from Ardea (Rome); Luigi Giuseppe Cirillo from Mercato San Severino; Alessio Coletti from Ostia; Fabio D'Agostino from Avezzano; Gino Vincenzo D'Anna from Ribera (Agrigento); Pietro Del Vecchio, known as “Pedro” from San Benedetto del Tronto; Vincenzo Del Vecchio from San Benedetto del Tronto; Luigi De Benedetto from Siano (Salerno); Fabio Di Giovanni from Giugliano in Campania (Naples); Gianmarco Di Giovanni from Giugliano in Campania (Naples); Vincenzo Erra from Mercato San Severino; Domenico Esposito, known as “Mimmo” from Naples; Guendalina Femia from Locri; Nicola Femia, known as “Rocco” from Marina di Gioiosa Jonica; Rocco Maria Nicola Femia from Locri; Yuri Fergemberger from Rapallo; Salvatore Ferrara, known as “Sasà” from Formia (Latina); Mauro Fontanino from Cervinara (Avellino); Pietro Garonfolo, known as “Peter” of Turin; Christian Genovese from Baronissi; Walter Genovese from Baronissi; Sabato Jacopo Genovese from Mercato San Severino; John Giarletta of Montoro; Emiliano Giorgi from Ostia Lido; Marino Grimaldi from Bracigliano; Antonino Irrera from Messina; Antonino La Commara of Naples; Enrico La Commara of Naples; Giovanni Marinelli of Potenza; Giustina Marino called “Tina” from Casavatore (Naples); Alessio Miranda from Rome; Domenico Mostacciuolo from Nocera Terinese; Gheorghe Murarescu from Siano; Altin Nervaj from Avezzano; Maurizio Pellegrini from Mugnano di Napoli; Gino Pennetta from Galatina; Ioana Petrescu resident in Romania; Vittorio Persico from Marano (Naples); Enrico Pizzuti from Paliano (Frosinone); Salvatore Pota from Aversa (Caserta); Angelo Prudentino from Ostuni; Francesco Rossi, known as Chicco, from Mercato San Severino; Gaetano Rossi from Mercato San Severino; Domenico Scardino, known as Mimmo, from Volla (Naples); Antonio Tancredi of Potenza; Dante Taranto of Arzano; Valerio Tito of Vico Equense; Marco Triumbari of Potenza; Donatella Valente of Rome; Maria Venosa called Mary of Aversa, Raffaele Venosa from San Cipriano d'Aversa; Giuseppe Verrone, known as “Peppe a lutamm” from Aversa.
Pretrial detention in prison
The precautionary custody measure in prison was applied against the following suspects: Michele Ambrosio, Gerardo Angiletta, Giannalberto Campagna, Lorenzo Carbone, Giuseppe Carnovale, Giuseppe Caulo, Fabrizio Ciampini, Luigi Giuseppe Cirillo, Alessio Coletti, Gino Vincenzo D'Anna, Fabio Di Giovanni, Gianmarco Di Giovanni, Guendalina Femia, Rocco Mario Nicola Femia, Salvatore Ferrara, Walter Genovese, Giovanni Ciarletta, Emiliano Giorgi, Antonino Irrera, Antonio La Commara, Enrico La Commara, Giovanni Marinelli, Alessio Miranda, Gino Pennetta, Iona Petrescu, Salvatore Pota, Angelo Prudentino, Gaetano Rossi, Antonio Tancredi, Dante Taranto.
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