Alessandro Cara and his wife Maria Grazia Meloni, respectively president and vice president of the social cooperative Laurus of Cagliari (headquarters in via San Benedetto), have been arrested and placed under house arrest. The cooperative has come under fire after the seizure of assets worth 1.8 million euros, carried out on 26 February by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Cagliari provincial command and the Guardia di Finanza.
The two are accused of ideological falsehood committed by a private individual in a public document, bid-rigging, aggravated fraud against the State and self-laundering. Two other people are under investigation in the investigation: Simona Marras (52, from Cagliari) and Ivo Meloni (50, from Quartu).
According to the investigators' reconstruction , the two, at the top of the cooperative that operates in the social-assistance services sector, allegedly carried out a series of scams, aimed at illegally obtaining public funds, by tampering with numerous tenders called by various local authorities in Southern Sardinia for the provision of social services and home care, thus obtaining unjust profits of around 10 million euros.
On February 26, current accounts and assets were seized, including 24 luxury watches (including an Audemars Piguet worth over 50 thousand euros), cash worth over 150 thousand euros, 23 designer bags and other valuables.
(Online Union)