A maxi-fraud of almost 800 thousand euros on holiday vouchers provided by the Ministry of Tourism during the period of the Covid emergency, between 2020 and 2021, was discovered by the Guardia di Finanza of Naples as part of an investigation coordinated by the Prosecutor's Office of Naples North, which led to the seizure of the defrauded sum - 796,760 euros - from the manager of a hotel in the northern area of Naples.
But the manager of the structure is not the only one involved in the scam, given that the financiers of the Giugliano Group, during the investigations, ascertained the active participation of 2098 people, all under investigation for fraud to obtain public funds and almost all residents in Campania, who monetized the holiday bonus by giving it to the hotel manager but without taking advantage of any stay.
The hotelier - it emerged - gave the false customers a cash sum of between 100 and 300 euros in exchange for the vouchers - she also paid via postepay if the customers were from outside the region - and then obtained the disbursement of the funds provided by the Ministry of Tourism ;
funds then cleared by transfer to the accounts of an LLC registered in the name of the director's husband.
For the over two thousand fictitious customers, the administrative procedure will now begin which could lead to the prefect issuing sanctions of up to three times what was achieved.
What turned the Fiamme Gialle's investigative spotlight on the hotel were the circumstances that the structure, despite being in an area with a low tourist vocation and having only eleven rooms, had received excessive sums relating to holiday vouchers and not corresponding to the usual volume of business, had in one day earned more than ten times what he could earn by filling all the rooms;
another suspicious circumstance is that the stays would have been consumed even in periods in which there were restrictions on movement, in which there were no customers.
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