Public funds and membership fees used for luxury cars and travel: €7 million seized for the former president of CUS Napoli

Naples - A precautionary seizure worth approximately €7 million was executed by the Guardia di Finanza in Naples, as part of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office (Crimes Against Public Administration Section) into the alleged systematic misappropriation of resources from the Naples University Sports Center (CUS).

The crimes alleged, to varying degrees, are embezzlement, money laundering, use of money, goods or utilities of illicit origin and self-laundering.

The investigation involves three suspects: the former president of CUS Napoli, Elio Cosentino, a longtime professor of Urban Management at Federico II University, his son Claudio Yannick Cosentino, and his wife Elisabeth Katharina Wisskirken.

The mechanism of distractions

The investigation revealed that, between 2018 and 2024, the association's then-legal representative repeatedly misappropriated funds for his own benefit and that of his family, including using a second sports association with no real managerial autonomy.

The identified bank transactions amounted to approximately €4,5 million: bank transfers, cash deposits, and POS credits, often made via home banking in the evenings and at night, sometimes even during the meeting called to renew the association's governing bodies.

The flow towards Germany

Part of the sums, amounting to 2,5 million euros, after passing through the second sports association, is said to have been transferred to the former president's family via bank transfers and cash withdrawals, mostly ending up in bank accounts in Germany.

Thanks to international judicial cooperation and coordination by Eurojust, with the involvement of the Cologne prosecutor's office, assets abroad were also identified and seized: 83 bank accounts, two luxury cars, 21 properties, and four business activities attributable to the suspects.

The suspects

Cosentino Sr. is accused of embezzlement amounting to approximately €4,2 million; his son is accused of embezzlement amounting to over €216 and the reinvestment of €2,6 million in property; his wife is accused of reinvesting approximately €30–36.

The genesis of the investigation

The investigation was coordinated by Deputy Prosecutor Giuseppina Loreto and Public Prosecutor Luigi Landolfi, and conducted by the Economic and Financial Police Unit and the 2nd Metropolitan Operational Unit of the Naples Financial Police.

The University Sports Center Scandal

The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed by new president Paola Del Giudice. The focus is on former owner Elio Cosentino, his wife, and his son. Wire transfers to Germany totaling €2,5 million were also traced.

A well-established system of misappropriating public and private resources has been swept away by a €7 million precautionary seizure. This is the outcome of the Guardia di Finanza's major operation that targeted Elio Cosentino—a decades-long veteran of the Naples University Sports Center (CUS), his son Claudio Yannik, and his wife Elisabeth Katharina Wisskirchen. The investigation began on November 1, 2024, following a detailed complaint filed by the organization's new president, attorney Paola Del Giudice, who took office in October of that year. The accounting investigations uncovered serious and systematic irregularities in the financial management of one of the most important university sports organizations in Southern Italy.

The ATM of public funds and membership fees

According to investigators' reconstructions, the CUS Napoli coffers were used as a veritable personal reserve. The stolen funds came not only from the fees paid by thousands of students and users enrolled in sports activities, but also from significant public contributions disbursed by leading institutions: the Federico II, Parthenope, and L'Orientale universities, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the FederCusi (Italian Football Federation), and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).

Financial flows to Germany and luxury goods

A key aspect of the investigation concerns transfers abroad: the Guardia di Finanza documented transfers of funds to Germany totaling approximately €2,5 million, of which over €1,9 million was actually credited to German bank accounts linked to the former president's family.

The university's resources were used to repay private vices and passions: season tickets and tickets for football matches in Cologne and Bayer Leverkusen, international tennis tournaments, elite courses at the Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, an AMG high-performance driving course, shopping sprees on Amazon and Apple, as well as flights and hotel stays.

Among the assets already seized, including in Germany, are two high-powered cars: a Mercedes-AMG registered to his son and an Audi Sport RS Q8 registered to his wife.

The end of a very long era

The court ruling marks the definitive collapse of Elio Cosentino, one of the longest-serving leaders in Italian university sports. His tenure at CUS Napoli spanned decades: appointed by Federico II to lead the center uninterruptedly from 1985 until October 2024, the association's historical records even attribute his very first term between 1969 and 1973. An era that lasted nearly half a century and has now ended at the center of a judicial storm.