“…the ring worn by Pope Francis, the skullcap of the Holy Father… the business cards signed by Queen Elizabeth II…, the vinyls autographed by the Beatles and Freddie Mercury… the shorts worn by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky…”. These are just some of the “memorabilia”, fake, complete with certification, marketed by a Turin man reported by the Guardia di Finanza of Turin. For shipments all over the world he used the identity of a deceased person.
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The military personnel of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Turin have identified a citizen of Turin suspected of being involved in a systematic activity of marketing goods (especially sports shirts) bearing the counterfeit distinctive signs of well-known football teams or involved in other alleged counterfeiting conduct.
The investigation, conducted by the Turin Economic and Financial Police Unit with the coordination of the local Public Prosecutor's Office, began with the results of the investigations carried out by the Customs and Monopolies Agency regarding some suspicious consignments of goods, which were found to have been carried out using the identity of a deceased person and were the subject of targeted inspections within customs areas.
The subsequent investigative development, entrusted to the Guardia di Finanza of the Piedmontese capital, led to the identification of a Turin individual as the presumed responsible for the aforementioned trafficking. His subsequent monitoring, through extensive observation and shadowing activities as well as a detailed investigation of the financial relationships attributable to him, made it possible to consistently integrate the available circumstantial framework.
In particular, the multiple shipments of goods (including to EU and non-EU countries) carried out by the suspect were traced and documented, and their operations were also reconstructed, finding that he used well-known e-commerce portals to get in touch with customers and sent them the goods sold through shipping companies.
He also sold the shirts of the most famous football teams
Having identified the possible locations where the alleged illicit activity took place, the Finance Police, acting on behalf of the Judicial Authority in charge, carried out a search, finding and seizing dozens of T-shirts bearing the counterfeit distinctive signs of the most famous European football teams (Paris Saint Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus, Milan, Inter, etc.), on which were found the false signatures of sports champions who play/have played for the same teams (Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Ibrahimovic, etc.).
In this circumstance, the suspect also had access to several other items that had been the object of counterfeiting, used to carry out – according to the accusation – insidious commercial frauds through their online sale.
Vinyl records autographed by the most famous pop stars for sale
The items in question include, among other things, objects (a ring and some skullcaps) claimed to have belonged to Pope Francis, notes bearing the apocryphal signature of the Queen of England – Elizabeth II, vinyl records bearing the fake signatures of famous stars of the world music scene (including Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury, The Beatles, Vasco Rossi, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, etc.), and shorts allegedly worn by Sylvester Stallone in the film “Rocky IV” and autographed by him.
The military personnel who intervened also seized several thousand fake certificates of authenticity, aimed at deceiving potential buyers of the aforementioned items, whose selling price ranged from around 100 euros for sports shirts to a few thousand euros for the “rarer” ones.
The suspect - who, without prejudice to the presumption of innocence until full ascertainment of responsibilities, will have to answer for the crimes of introduction into the State and trade of products with false markings, receiving stolen goods and commercial fraud - was also the recipient of a seizure order of the related financial and patrimonial assets for over one hundred thousand euros, issued by the Judicial Authority in relation to the profit made from the alleged illicit activity carried out during the period covered by the investigative findings (from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2022).
The operation, which also involves the fiscal assessment of the activity carried out by the suspect, represents further confirmation of the constant action of the Guardia di Finanza in contrasting the phenomena of counterfeiting and fraudulent trade of non-genuine products, which damage the market and companies that respect the rules.
Article published on March 24, 2023 - 08pm
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