European Police Confiscate Lamborghini, Porsche And Rolex In COVID-19 Fund Fraud Cases

JAKARTA - The police arrested 22 people and confiscated assets worth more than 600 million ($650 million) related to the alleged fraud in the use of the European Union's post-pandemic recovery funds for Italy.

After an investigation by EU prosecutors, eight people were detained, 14 people were placed under house arrest and the other two were barred from running their professions. The arrests took place in Italy, Austria, Romania, and Slovakia.

Italian financial police, as reported by CNN on Saturday, April 6, said they had seized Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolex, Cartier jewelry, cryptocurrencies, luxury villas, and other items in dozens of raids on homes and offices.

Italy is the largest recipient of funds with a total grant of more than 194 billion.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said the organization involved in this case was suspected of carrying out a fraud scheme between 2021 and 2023 to deceive Italy's post-COVID financial package of recovery.

In 2021, the group is submitting a request to receive a grant that cannot be paid back, the EPPO said, pretending to support small and medium enterprises, but then making fake sheets to show the company is active and profitable, when in fact they are inactive and fictitious companies.

After obtaining funds of around 600 million from Italy's National Resilience and Recovery Plan (NRP), the group then transferred the funds to their bank accounts in Austria, Romania and Slovakia, the EPPO said.

The prosecutor's office said the group used cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and foreign cloud servers to commit and hide the fraud.

The United States is also trying to crack down on allegations of fraud involving COVID-19 aid resources.

Federal watchdog warned in June that Small Business Administration distributed more than $200 billion post-pandemic funds that could potentially commit fraud.