Naples. Umberto Scala, a 59-year-old accountant from Naples, was arrested and placed under house arrest by the financiers of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Naples, accused of being the director of a complex fraudulent system that involved several companies in financial difficulty.
Despite having been banned from practicing law for five years due to previous crimes, Scala managed to continue his criminal activity, using front men and developing a series of stratagems to help his clients make company assets disappear and avoid criminal liability.
Four main investigations led to the arrest of the accountant:
- The failure of a Neapolitan restaurant: In this case, Scala would have orchestrated the disappearance of over 270 thousand euros and the accounting, leaving the creditors with nothing.
- The collapse of a construction consortium: The accountant is suspected of having managed the financial flows of a construction consortium involved in a series of public and private contracts, diverting large sums of money (around 47 million euros) to companies controlled by entrepreneurs who did not carry out the work, thus damaging the other consortium companies.
- Insolvency of publishing companies: Scala allegedly used three publishing companies in crisis to manage an industrial plant in Acerra, failing to pay creditors for almost one million euros.
- The bankruptcy of a construction company: The last case concerns a company in charge of the redevelopment of a historic cinema in Genoa. In this case too, the accounting documentation was made to disappear and the company was emptied of its assets, despite having obtained large bank loans.
A proven modus operandi
The investigations of the Guardia di Finanza, coordinated by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, have revealed a well-tested modus operandi: Scala, thanks to his expertise in accounting, was able to manipulate the balance sheets of companies in difficulty, hide assets and facilitate tax evasion. In this way, he was able to artificially prolong the life of companies, allowing his clients to continue operating even in the presence of clear signs of crisis.
The article talks about an accountant who did serious things, but it is strange how despite the bans he manages to continue. It is important that the authorities control these situations better to prevent similar cases from happening again.