Around the Gisowatt a criminal network, 17 arrests at dawn

Today at first light of dawn, the public prosecutor’s office of Busto Arsizio, together with the Carabinieri of Saronno and the Italian Finance Police of Varese have accomplished a new blitz against 17 people charged variously with extortion, usury, laundering, corruption, acts opposed to the office duties, fraud. At the core of the complex event there is a Mafia Commission composed by entrepreneurs, representatives of the security force, and ‘ndranghetisti (Italian Mafia criminal organization). Everything revolves around Emanuele and Franco Sozzi, owners of the Gisowatt of Gorla Minore that produces appliances. They on one side were extorted money by Tripepi-De Marte clan of Seminara (who already was at the core of the investigation that two months ago brought the arrest of 38 people, editor’s note) and on the other side corrupted functionaries to obtain favours and information through the database of the Home Office. In the middle, through a complex system of emptying of the business assets, the two businessmen tried to fraud the inland revenue for a total amount of about 5.5 million euro.

The criminal network around the Gisowatt, reconstructed in a meticulous way in the 130 pages of the pre-trial detention order by the Carabinieri of the mobile radio Operational Core of Saronno, who had been guided by the warrant officer Salvatore Carrà and by Pasquale Adesso, the substitute prosecutor of Busto, highlights a dreadful reality that demonstrates the penetration of the ‘ndrangheta in the territory between the districts of Varese, Milan and Como.

THE EXTORTIONS– according to the investigators, just in the last year, Gianfranco and Emanuele Sozzi had paid about 40 thousand euro to the Tripepi-De Marte clan to obtain the so-called “protection”. Roberto Tripepi (defended by Francesca Cramis), his brother Annunziato together with Giorgio Clerici (the third, Diego, had already finished in prison in the previous months, editor’s note), indeed, used the classic system already seen in other numerous cases of extortion. Through two members of the clan, Angelo Paolillo and Giuseppe La Regina, they put to use a series of threats, even of death, towards Emanuele Sozzi, who, convinced to be able to obtain help from Tripepi, addresses in particular Roberto that offered to mediate towards Paolillo and La Regina in return of money. With this method the criminal group obtained about 38 thousand euro without Sozzi understanding that the two men, who were threatening him, were part of Tripepi clan.

Functionaries–  the Sozzi brothers apparently  have worked unscrupulously also with the law enforcement agencies, in fact they found some policemen willing to send information and credit facilities to them  in return for money or favours. The public  prosecutor’s office checked on four police officers: two of them were on duty at the central police station of Como, one was stationed at Malpensa  and the least- even though he appeared to work in Varese- recently moved to Brindisi. Sozzi managed to create a privileged and without control corridor at the Malpensa stopover where they managed to get in and out from the national territory a Brazilian woman and an Eastern Europe woman. Then they found out that the first woman was the girlfriend of one of the two brothers. The two women were able to get in and out from Italy without the normal airport controls on their immigrant situation. In other cases the corridor was used to get money in and out from and to foreign countries.

Inland revenue fraud –  In the end, the two entrepreneurs through obliging experts ( in particular an accountant from Busto Arsizio) excogitated an emptying of properties system of the Gisowatt society- that was in a bad situation in the finance field- to a real estate society that would have helped them from possible fiscal controls. The Carabiniere of Saranno singled out the Finance police of Varese that designated to the investigation the colonel Giuseppe Fugacci, a real expert in the fiscal field, who discovered the system.

The lawyers– the lawyer of Gianfranco Sozzi is Cesare Ciccorella who declared: “As a citizen I’m shocked for what has happened, before the lawyer  we need  a little bit more moderation by the magistrates who want to send to prison entrepreneurs with a company that produces and workers who risk to lose their job. Regarding the ‘ndrangheta ( a Mafia criminal organization in Italy) my clients are victims and not accomplices, as regarding the functionaries corruption I don’t believe that a person could be sent to prison for calling for an aid for his Brazilian girlfriend and in the matter of fraud I have to read and to examine in depth the accusations before saying something.” Explained the lawyer. Francesca Cramis, on the other hand defends Roberto Tripepi: “ at the time being I can only say that the searches of the Carabiniere have given a negative result.