Arrested Daniele Santucci, 65-year-old president of the Italian Agency of State Institutions, illegally withdrew part of the money received from taxes and bought a ranch, a luxury car, gold coins and silver bullion.
The financial police of the city of Lecco arrested the president of the governing council of an organization specializing in collecting taxes from state institutions. According to the prosecution, over the past six years he has taken out of circulation about 7 million euroscoming from 800 communes from all over Italy. After a lengthy investigation launched last year, Daniele Santucci, 65, the president of Aipa (Agenzia italiana per pubbliche amministrazioni, Italian government agency), an organization headquartered in Milan but operating on the entire peninsula, ended up in jail. . The prosecutor’s charge is the appropriation of public funds on an especially large scale.
Restoring the picture of events, the investigators found that since 2008, Santucci illegally withdrew part of the incoming taxes from circulation and used them for personal purposes. With 7 million euros that he "pocketed", instead of being transferred to the box office of local institutions, Santucci not only rebuilt his house in Varese, but also acquired two more ranches (one in Italy, the second in the USA) to raise horses for rodeo. In addition, he invested in a luxury car, gold coins and silver bullion.
Despite the fact that at first glance, everything looked legal, after a careful study of Aipa's balance sheets and bank documents, interesting things were discovered. It turned out that "President Santucci opened two current accounts in two different banking institutions," both formally recorded on organizations receiving money, but "forgot to take them into account in the official financial statements." There is a system designed to withdraw public funds from public use and "use of money for personal purposes."
Representatives of Aipa hastened to express their position to reporters: “Our organization has never misappropriated government funds illegally. It turns out that the judicial authorities took measures in the absence of the necessary evidence of guilt. They just failed to recognize the only organization and suggested that it was transferred to it for illegal embezzlement” .
