A spokesman for the Guardia di Finanza (GDF), the institution that conducted the investigations, said in statements published Tuesday by the newspaper Il Messaggero, that following investigations, led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ravenna, in the northern region of Emilia Romagna, the so-called “King of Scams” was captured.

The 50 years old man, resident of that region presenting himself as the representative or president of several organizations, trade associations and study centers, who, after obtaining the trust of his victims, allegedly managed non-repayable or subsidized loans granted by the European Union.

As compensation for the advisory activity, he charged in advance up to 1,200 euros for each one of these applications, which he never actually executed.

He managed to involve his own victims in this crime, to expand his profits, promising them compensation in case they introduced new interested parties to these forms of financing, and thus generated a system of chain fraud, which multiplied rapidly, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In that period, “many farmers and small businessmen in liquidity crisis, saw in these supposed financial solutions a possibiity to survive,” the GDF spokesman affirmed.

According to the source, he operated mainly in the provinces of Alessandria, Asti, Bologna, Brescia, Campobasso, Caserta, Como, Cuneo, Ferrara, Forlì-Cesena, Frosinone, Isernia, Latina, Lodi, Milan, Modena, Naples, Novara, Pavia, Piacenza, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Rome, Salerno, Turin, Varese, Vercelli and Viterbo,

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