Sassari, fraud on building bonuses and “ghost” construction sites: seizures for almost 3 million euros

A scam worth almost 3 million euros centered on building bonuses financed with PNRR resources.

It is the one discovered by the Yellow Flames of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Sassari, which led

to the seizure of financial assets and movable property held by five construction companies, their directors and numerous

professionals, all involved, in various capacities, in what investigators define as "an insidious fraud mechanism".

The measure came after two years of investigations, conducted by the financial police of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Sassari, monitoring numerous construction sites in the Sassari area.

The fraud mechanism was more or less always the same: a professional technician certified that the building renovation and energy efficiency works contracted by unsuspecting clients had already been carried out and completed when, in reality, the relevant construction site had often not even been set up. All with the aim of allowing the company carrying out the works and himself to obtain, through the "Discount on invoice" option, an undue tax credit that could be cashed in advance by transferring it to unsuspecting subjects in good faith and, in some cases, to credit institutions.

The Finance Police also examined the accounts and the state of the sites of twenty-three construction sites (sixteen condominiums and seven single-family buildings) and during the inspections it was discovered that some of the works had not been carried out at all while others had only been partially completed.

At the end of the investigation, the directors of five construction companies that had unduly received tax credits for a value of approximately 2.5 million euros were reported.

"The timeliness of the inspection action - explains a note from the Sassari Command - not only allowed the seizure of what was unduly obtained, but also to avoid the circulation and use of fictitious tax credits, preventing further damage to the budget of the State and the European Union".

(Unioneonline/lf)