Scam on migrant funds, 17 investigated in Caserta including a nun

A shocking investigation has brought to light a mega-scam to the detriment of migrants and the State. In Caserta, 17 people, including a nun and a former municipal employee, are under investigation for orchestrating a scam worth millions of euros on funds intended for the integration of asylum seekers.

Among those under investigation are the retired former municipal employee Matteo Palmisani, Sister Rita Giarretta, legal representative of the congregation of the Ursuline Sisters, and several members of the Ex Canapificio social center in Caserta, one of the most important associations in the area that deal with the reception, assistance and integration of migrants, also through dedicated help desks and inclusion projects.

The investigations, conducted by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, have revealed a corrupt system that allowed two important local associations, Ex Canapificio and Casa Rut, to unduly acquire over 6 million euros.

The organizations allegedly submitted false documentation to obtain funding for training, reception and social inclusion projects, promising services that, according to the accusations, were never actually provided.

At the center of the investigation, a former municipal employee who, taking advantage of his position, would have facilitated the obtaining of funds by the associations involved. The nun, legal representative of one of the two organizations, would have been an accomplice in the scam, helping to falsify the documentation necessary to obtain the funding.

The investigation began with a complaint from a former Ghanaian worker at the Ex Canapificio Social Center, who had reported some irregularities within the association. Subsequent investigations brought to light a disturbing picture, which casts a shadow over the management of public funds earmarked for such an important initiative as the integration of migrants.

The facts concern the years 2017-2018, when the former Canapificio and the Casa Rut community of Sister Rita Giarretta managed the System of Protection and Assistance for Asylum Seekers, the Sprar, today known as Siproimi, or projects that aim to integrate migrants who have applied for asylum by having them attend training courses, Italian language courses or schools, with the aim of inserting them into the Italian social and working fabric.

According to the prosecution (prosecutor Pierpaolo Bruni, deputy head of investigations Anna Ida Capone), the two associations would have presented false documentation to obtain the acceptance of the application for funding for the three-year period 2017/2019 relating to the Sprar, thus winning the projects worth 6 million euros; according to the investigators, the support of the municipal employee Palmisani, now retired, was decisive. Thanks to this documentation deemed untrue, the Municipality of Caserta granted the assignment as the lead body of the area of social services.

The social center, 'we are innocent'

“We are calm and aware that we can demonstrate our non-involvement in the hypotheses of defamatory crimes that are being charged to us”. This is how the Ex Canapificio Social Centre comments in a note on the investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, in which several of its representatives are involved, regarding an alleged fraud on funds for the integration of migrants.

“In 2018 – the note continues – the Public Prosecutor's Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere decided to open an investigation into some activists of the Ex Canapificio Social Center of Caserta, which at that time managed the Sprar reception project for refugees and asylum seekers.

The investigations began following a complaint from a former project operator, who had previously been fired and reported by the Social Center for serious acts committed within the reception project. The investigations were closed on September 30, 2019 and on October 24, we were notified of the closure of those investigations,” the association emphasizes, thus highlighting the time gap – over five years – between the closure of the investigative phase and its formalization through the notice required by law.

"We are proud of the supportive and inclusive community that we have had the honor of helping to build in this country and in this city. A commitment that we will not fail to make, to which we will continue to dedicate ourselves with our passion, with our usual enthusiasm, with our tenacity," the note concludes.