Eurojust coordinated Italian-Romanian action to freeze €40M in mafia-linked assets, including property, businesses and accounts.
Italian and Romanian authorities have seized assets worth more than EUR 40 million from an individual suspected of being affiliated with mafia families. Eurojust ensured that the freezing happened simultaneously in both countries.
Investigations into the Italian suspect, a former crown witness, exposed his ties to the Santapaola-Ercolano family and the Cappello Bonaccorsi clan. He was allegedly involved in laundering his own and mafia assets through assets purchased in his own name and in the names of his relatives. Betting and online gaming licences and shops in the provinces of Catania and Syracuse, Italy, as well as cryptocurrency, were used to launder significant amounts of illegal profits.
Some of the assets, including real estate and cars, were purchased in Romania. As a result, Italian and Romanian authorities had to collaborate to ensure that the assets could be frozen. Through Eurojust, a freezing certificate was prepared without delay. Coordination by Eurojust enabled simultaneous freezing in Italy and Romania, ensuring that the suspect or his affiliates could not move any assets.
National Member for Italy Mr Filippo Spiezia and National Member for Romania Ms Daniela Buruiana jointly commented on the successful operation: ‘To successfully fight organised crime, we need to hit criminals where it hurts. Only by seizing their assets, we are able to take away the foundations that organised crime is built on.
This case is worth a special mention due to its intrinsic complexity, where the judicial cooperation among Italian and Romanian judicial authority was crucial to ensure the execution of a non-conviction based freezing decision, in view of the confiscation. We have seen many cases where criminals move their assets across the globe to remain undetected.
Solid international judicial cooperation to link assets and take action is essential to ensure that they can’t hide for justice.’
The assets, worth more than EUR 40 million, include 20 betting businesses operating in betting, online gaming or real estate; 89 properties in Italy and Romania; 2 cars; 20 bank accounts and cash.
The actions were carried out by the following authorities:
- Italy: Court of Catania; Guardia di Finanza – Financial Economic Department in Catania
- Romania: Prosecutors’ Office attached to the Bucharest Tribunal
Reports are sourced from official documents, law-enforcement updates, and credible investigations.
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