From the beginning of the pandemic to today, the Agenzia dell'Entrate, "in the years 2020 and 2021, has disbursed a total, by bank transfer or tax credit, non-repayable contributions for an amount of 24.9 billion euros, corresponding to more than 7.8 million wire transfers or tax credit acknowledgments ".
This was stated by Ernesto Maria Ruffini, director of the "Agenzia dell'Entrate, in a hearing in the Senate on the Sostegni Ter decree, which adds," provides for additional funds ".
"Up to now - he said in another passage - the analysis and control activity conducted has made it possible to identify, for the Revenue Agency and the Financial Police, a total amount of non-existent tax credits referred to in Articles 119 and following of the Relaunch Decree of 4.4 billion euros ".
At 31 December 2021, "the first sales and discounts on invoices communicated to the Revenue Agency through the specific platform were: almost 4.8 million; for a total value of over 38.4 billion euros".
Of the 4.4 billion frauds in particular: "following a report by the Revenue Agency and the Financial Police, 2.3 billion are now subject to preventive seizures by the judicial authorities; 160 million euros have been suspended and discarded by the Agency on the "credit transfer" platform, due to the provisions introduced with the anti-fraud decree, which allows the Agency to carry out this preventive check in the presence of risk profiles ".
The analysis and control activities carried out by the Revenue Agency, explained Ruffini, to which were added the reports of citizens who are unwitting victims of scams, "brought out a general worrying picture".
"Serious irregularities related to the creation,
also by criminal organizations branched out throughout the national territory, of non-existent tax credits for amounts of several billion euros which, after complex chains of sales to intermediary companies and individuals, were partly monetized with credit institutions or other financial intermediaries.
In some cases, the proceeds of the fraud were conveyed abroad ". The circulation of tax credits," when implemented through a particularly articulated and expertly simulated chain of transfers, makes it difficult for the financial intermediary to evaluate, in the exercise of ordinary professional diligence, the lawfulness of the operation, with the risk of involuntarily taking part in fraudulent conduct, also contiguous with money laundering.
Indeed,
with regard to a receivable subject to multiple assignments, a check carried out only against the last assignee who requests its monetization may be substantially ineffective.
In any case, it may be noted that not all financial intermediaries have been harmed ".