Italy police break up international money laundering ring in Rome
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Italian finance police on Wednesday arrested 17 people accused of running an international money laundering ring through a British-based money transfer services company which was used to shuttle illegal proceeds abroad, mostly to China.
Managers of Rome branches of Sigue Global Services Ltd. were among those suspected of international conspiracy and money laundering that investigators said amounted to more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) in just over two years.
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Italy, the euro zone's third-biggest economy, has one of the highest rates of tax evasion in the European Union. Earlier this year, the country's Court of Accounts estimated it to be as much as 130 billion euros per year.
"We were shocked by the numbers," Rome prosecutor Nello Rossi, who led the investigation, told reporters. "It's money laundering of a scale that saps the country's wealth."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-italy-moneylaundering-idUSKBN0JV2IF20141217?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
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(Reuters) - The Vatican's economy minister has said hundreds of millions of euros were found "tucked away" in accounts of various Holy See departments without having appeared in the city-state's balance sheets.
Australian Cardinal George ''Moneybags'' Pell
- Hmmmm......