Fake tax credits and undue compensation: the Guardia di Finanza dismantles a fraud scheme involving professionals and businesses in Lazio, Campania, and Emilia.
Piacenza, November 5, 2025 – A complex system of false tax offsets, "phantom" tax credits, and shell companies created to deceive the Treasury. This is the picture that emerged from the investigations of the Piacenza Financial Police, which, on behalf of the Public Prosecutor's Office, executed a precautionary seizure of assets worth over €5 million against three main suspects—a Roman professional, a de facto director of a Piacenza-based company, and a third party—held responsible for aggravated fraud and undue offset.
The investigation, which involves a total of 13 suspects, including legal representatives and directors of ten companies based in Lazio and Campania, has uncovered a well-structured fraudulent scheme aimed at obtaining undue tax benefits to the detriment of the State.
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The system of "fake" tax credits
According to investigators from the Piacenza Economic and Financial Police Unit, the professional at the center of the scheme allegedly devised a mechanism for creating nonexistent tax credits, referring to alleged commercial property rental payments and business leases that never occurred.
These completely unfounded credits were "resold" in a chain through a network of specially created shell companies, and then used as offsets by real companies—including a Piacenza-based company operating throughout the country and holding public contracts—to reduce or eliminate their tax debts.
The use of intermediaries and fictitious money transfers was intended to make it more difficult to identify the illicit nature of the credits, shielding the final beneficiary companies from any possible direct involvement.
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Money flows abroad and links to Camorra clans
Financial investigations also revealed that the funds used to "simulate" the acquisition of tax credits were quickly diverted to foreign accounts, particularly to countries that are uncooperative in anti-money laundering measures, such as China.
Some of the companies receiving the transfers were linked to front men with specific criminal records and connections to Casale's criminal organization, giving the fraud a potential international money laundering profile.
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Luxury goods and bank accounts seized
In execution of the Piacenza Prosecutor's Office order, the Guardia di Finanza seized unpaid tax credits, company and personal bank accounts, and various real estate assets:
a villa in Costa Smeralda, in Arzachena (SS);
four plots of land and a garage between the provinces of Latina and Avellino;
financial resources attributable to the main suspects.
The total value of the seized assets exceeds 5 million euros.
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The Guardia di Finanza: "Protection of the economy and public resources"
The Piacenza Provincial Command emphasizes that this operation represents a further step in protecting the state's economic and financial interests and in the fight against tax credit fraud, a tool that has been repeatedly abused in recent years.
"Combating tax fraud," the Guardia di Finanza emphasizes, "is essential to ensuring that public resources earmarked to support families and businesses actually reach those who deserve them, fostering the country's productive and employment growth."
Comments (1)
It's strange that there are people who can do these things. Fake tax credits are a serious problem for the economy. I wonder how the authorities didn't notice it before.