Police in Modena and Rome on
Monday seized hundreds of contracts regarding consulting,
supply, and subcontracting issued by Italy's leftwing
cooperative Gruppo CPL Concordia.
The operation came as part of an ongoing investigation into
alleged bribes paid to obtain public contracts on the Bay of
Naples island of Ischia.
The company's external relations manager, Francesco Simone,
told investigators that CPL Concordia used fraudulent consulting
contracts and subcontracts assigned to shell companies designed
specifically for the purpose of fraud, in order to obtain public
works tenders.
Simone was arrested on March 30 together with nine other
people, including Ischia mayor Giuseppe 'Giosi' Ferrandino, as
part of the probe.
The day after the arrests, Italy's anti-corruption czar,
Raffaele Cantone, requested that prosecutors send him the
case files.
"We have officially requested the documents from the
Naples prosecutor's office to see whether there are contracts
that can be put into the hands of administrators," he said.
Investigators believe CPL Concordia executives also
paid money to members of the Campania mafia, the Camorra, as
part of the scam.
CPL Concordia is a huge former Communist cooperative
founded in Modena in 1899 and employing some 1,800 people, with
70 branches worldwide.
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