THE DIREZIONE INVESTIGATIVA ANTIMAFIA EXECUTED A PREVENTIVE SEIZURE ORDER AGAINST A COMPANY ENGAGED IN PUBLIC CONTRACTS

The Direzione Investigativa Antimafia carried out an urgent preventive seizure order issued by the Public Prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office in Naples – Anti-Mafia District Directorate – against a company involved in public procurements.

The measure was taken as part of the recently launched investigation focused on entrepreneurs from Caserta, who are suspected of having fictitiously registered the shares and the representatives of the company involved in public works, so to protect the economic interests of persons who are suspected of being close to the Casalesi clan, fazione Zagaria.

In particular, the timely checks carried out by the DIA on behalf of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Naples, gathered serious investigative hints highlighting that a company, which had been formally awarded new public procurements, was the continuation, i.e. the clone, of a preceding company, having same activities and goals. The former company had already been subjected to seizure within previous criminal proceedings, since it was considered to be instrumental to the economic and entrepreneurial goals of the Casalaesi clan, fazione Zagaraia.

According to the assumptions, the new company had only formally adopted a new corporate status, with new partners and directors and used expedients to curb the anti-mafia law and avoid preventive measures, as for example a fictitious registered office in Romania. Moreover, the company had been awarded five public procurements in many areas of Naples and Caserta, three of which had been funded with the Recovery and Resilience Plan 

According to the measure taken, also the judicial administration of the former company is suspected of having violated the criminal law. The company had already been subjected to seizure since it had not established appropriate mechanisms and tools to manage the equipment and the activities falling under its custody and surveillance so to carry out a procurement which had already been awarded to the company, also with the purpose to restore a real estate confiscated from camorra, to be destined for social purposes.

The criminal proceeding leading the seizure ordered by Public Prosecutor’ Office is based on the hints gathered from the controls carried out during the accesses to the construction sites of public works in the metropolitan area of Naples. Such accesses were ordered by the Prefect in Naples and carried out by the Interagency Group set up at the Prefettura, within which, the DIA, based on the preliminary checks carried out, choose the priority activities to carry out.

Today’s activity is the result of the effective coordination between the preventive activity coordinated by the Prefect and the judicial activity directed by the Prosecutor’s Office.

The order carried out is a preventive measure taken within preliminary investigations. It may be challenged and the affected persons are under investigations, hence they are presumed innocent until final conviction.

Naples, 22 April 2024