Italian police arrest 21 men for making non-existent houses ‘sustainable’ | Abroad

In total, the fraudsters had requested 2.8 billion euros in subsidies to carry out renovations in several thousand homes in Naples and the surrounding area. This mainly concerns the renovation bonuses that have been introduced in recent years to make homes more sustainable, the so-called “ecobonus” and “facciate bonus”.

An investigation by the Guardia di Finanza, the financial police, showed that the bounties had been requested for non-existent properties and, in more than two thousand cases, even in non-existent municipalities. The buildings would also be in the name of the homeless, deceased and people with criminal records. The police discovered the fraud due to the lack of invoices and errors in the amounts claimed.

1.7 billion euros in tax credits, the largest ever in Italy, were seized and 21 people were arrested. In Asti, near Turin, in the north, the financial police are also on the trail of a major renovation bonus fraud. Another 1.5 billion euros would have been seized there. Ten people were arrested in Asti.

The subsidy schemes, introduced in 2020 by the first Conte government, have been criticized for some time for their susceptibility to fraud. It was possible to apply for grants without too many checks and these were then paid out as a tax deduction. The tax deduction could also be sold to finance companies, which would then refund the claimant a slightly lower amount in cash. Many construction companies use it to pre-finance their work, fraudsters to bottle things up.

This last possibility was limited by the Italian government, but despite this, according to estimates, in 2022 alone, more than 5 billion euros were fraudulent with renovation subsidies.

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