All the flaws of Esselunga according to the Milan prosecutor’s office
Because the economic and financial police unit of the Gdf of Milan, in an investigation by prosecutor Paolo Storari, carried out an emergency preventive seizure for almost 48 million euros against Esselunga. All the details
Judicial storm over Esselunga.
Here are facts, numbers and the position of the large-scale distribution group.
THE PREVENTIVE SEIZURE OF THE GdF
The economic-financial police unit of the Milan Finance Police, as part of an investigation by the public prosecutor Paolo Storari, today carried out an emergency preventive seizure for almost 48 million euros (47,765,684.45 euros, to be precise) against Esselunga.
At the center of the investigation is an alleged "illegal supply of labour": according to the prosecution, in fact, "complex tax fraud" was ascertained according to the mechanism of "manpower tanks". This is the same pattern that Storari has found in other surveys of large logistics and distribution companies, such as DHL and BRT.
The Department of Contrasting Illegal Acts of the Revenue Agency collaborated in the investigation by the economic-financial police unit.
THE VERSION OF THE PROSECUTION
The prosecution claims to have ascertained, also in the case of Esselunga, a "tax fraud characterized by the use, by the final beneficiary of the illegal mechanism", i.e. Esselunga itself, "of invoices for legally non-existent transactions and by the stipulation of fictitious procurement contracts for the supply of manpower, in violation of sector legislation, which led to the issue and consequent use of non-existent invoices for a total amount of over 221 million euros, plus VAT, exceeding 47 million euros ”.
FILTER COMPANY AND TANK COMPANY
Analyzing the "labor supply chain", the prosecution found that "employment relationships with the client company", i.e. Esselunga, "were in some cases 'screened' by 'filter' companies which in turn made use of various cooperative societies ('reservoir' society)”. In other cases, on the other hand, "[employment relationships, ed. ] were held directly with the latter, who systematically omitted the payment of VAT and, in most cases, social security and welfare charges".
SEARCHES IN MILAN, NOVARA AND BERGAMO
Searches are underway against "the natural and legal persons involved in Milan, Novara and Bergamo and the notification of guarantee information is being proceeded, as well as for personal responsibilities regarding the crimes of issuing and using invoices for non-existent operations, also in terms of the administrative liability of entities" against Esselunga "in relation to the criminal offenses committed by the managers of the company".
ESSELUNGA'S FRAUDULENT CONDUCT, ACCORDING TO PM STORARI
Paolo Storari, public prosecutor of Milan, wrote in the seizure decree that the "conduct" of "Esselunga, of a fraudulent nature, has lasted for many years and has led not only to the systematic exploitation of workers but also enormous damage to the treasury".
WHO ARE THE SUSPECTS
The suspects are the former financial director of Esselunga, Stefano Ciolli, and the current director Albino Rocca, current financial director.
A MECHANISM STILL IN ACTION
In the Storari decree he writes that the "fraudulent mechanism is still in place, with very significant losses for the tax authorities and situations of labor exploitation that persist, to the full advantage of Esselunga SpA".
The judge for preliminary investigations (GIP) of Milan Domenico Santoro will have to express himself on the validation of the decree in the next few days
THE INVESTIGATION ON THE FIDUCIARY SERVICES COOPERATIVE
ANSA wrote that the investigation into Esselunga intersects with that – also coordinated by Storari – into the Servizi Fiduciari cooperative, part of the Sicuritalia group, which deals with private security and surveillance. Among the customers of the cooperative was Esselunga (which however, in this investigation, is not investigated).
Today judicial control of Fiduciary Services was ordered on charges of illegal hiring.
HOW THE “MANPOOL TANKS” SCHEME WORKS
According to the prosecutor, Esselunga would have adopted the "manpower tanks" scheme in its logistics and goods handling services between 2016 and 2022.
The system, explained Storari, allows companies to guarantee themselves "highly competitive rates by outsourcing workforce" irregularly for their services. This manpower is provided to them by a series of cooperative societies that are born and die in a short time.
The workers, formally employed by a network of cooperatives, however actually worked for Esselunga and were forced – to keep their jobs – to move from one of these ephemeral companies to another. The decree speaks of the "detected 'migration'" of labor and of companies" expressly set up [and] in order to replace the former once an unsustainable debt position has accumulated towards the exchequer".
In this way the final client, i.e. Esselunga, could "enjoy the services of workers formally classified as employees of the so-called 'reservoirs' of manpower companies, while benefiting from the right to deduct the VAT shown on the invoices that characterize the relationships under discussion" .
The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, the decree reads, "has already taken an interest in phenomena similar to the present: DHL Supply Chain (Italy), Gls group, Spumador SpA, Salumificio Beretta, Spreafico SpA, Movimoda, Uber, TNT, LIDL, Fiera Milano , Schenker, Aldieri SpA, Cegalin – Hotelvolver group, BRT, Geodis”.
WHAT DOES THE LAVORO PIÙ CONSORTIUM HAVE TO DO WITH IT?
One of the "reservoir" companies involved in the survey is Consorzio Lavoro Più, administered by Fabrizio Cairoli. The deeds speak of "transfer of the financial supplies under investigation from current accounts held in the name of Consorzio Lavoro Più to non-European foreign accounts, after being transferred to bank accounts held in the name of third-party legal entities".
ESSELUNGA'S ANSWER
With regard to the preventive seizure, Esselunga made it known in a note that it "immediately took action to offer the widest collaboration to the judicial authorities and full support for the performance of the activities".
"We confidently await the checks and insights, in the knowledge that we have always operated in compliance with the law", he concludes.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/esselunga-sequestro-preventivo/ on Thu, 22 Jun 2023 14:12:52 +0000.