Escorts, money and champagne in exchange for waste disposal contracts: 14 suspects and one arrest
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Luxury escorts, bottles of champagne, hotel stays and expensive dinners as well as fuel vouchers and football match tickets in exchange for exclusive waste disposal contracts. Corruption and exploitation of prostitution are the crimes contested in the ‘Leonida’ operation conducted by the financial police and coordinated by the Reggio Emilia prosecutor’s office.
The irregularities
The investigation started from the alleged irregularities in the direct awarding of public contracts exclusively to a Reggio Emilia company in the waste disposal sector. The operation by the Guardia di Finanza of Reggio Emilia led to 5 precautionary measures (one under house arrest and four disqualifications), three of which were against public officials. The measures from dawn on Tuesday 16 April were carried out by the Reggio Emilia yellow flames. At the same time – by approximately 90 soldiers – 26 local searches are underway and 14 warnings are being served. The service operation is underway in the provinces of Reggio Emilia, Parma, Verona, Brescia, Lucca, Livorno, Sassari, Rome and Siena.
Escorts and gifts
Escorts, bottles of champagne, hotel stays and expensive dinners as well as fuel vouchers and tickets for football matches were some of the goods exchanged to obtain contracts awarded exclusively for waste disposal. Among those under investigation are also two Army officers and a civil engineer, all three employed in the military ammunition restoration and recovery plant in Noceto (Parma) and accused of having received gifts to favor the company in direct assignments of disposal works of special waste (including demilitarization activities of missiles and white phosphorus bombs) for a total amount of 650,000 euros between April 2023 and last January.
The public contracts entrusted directly and presumably illegally to the Reggio Emilia company were identified in the context of the services requested by some municipal companies operating in Tuscany, Veneto and Lombardy and 10 people are under investigation for these conducts (of which, 5 private entities connected to a company from Reggio Emilia and 5 public officials included in the three publicly held companies involved in the investigations).
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