Crisis is boom-time for Mafia money-launderers, bank says

Italy’s worst economic crisis since the Second World War has been a boon to the Mafia, with reports of suspicious bank transactions rocketing, according to the Bank of Italy.

Reports of suspected money-laundering through financial institutions rose 147 per cent in 2010-11 from the previous two years “and they are still on the rise”, Anna Maria Tarantola, deputy director at the central bank, said in testimony to parliament yesterday.

About 800 of the total reports involved people arrested or under investigation for Mafia activities, she added. A quarter of those were reported in northern Italy, outside of the territories historically controlled by the Mafia, she said.

Organised crime groups such as Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, the Camorra around Naples and the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta have long had a stranglehold on the Italian economy. But their grip has tightened during the economic slump, as banks reduced lending and the criminal networks, flush with cash, boosted their investments in the real economy.

“Money-laundering is anti- cyclical, so it increases in times of crisis,” Ms Tarantola said.

Organised crime generated annual turnover in 2011 of about €140 billion (£113bn), or about 7 per cent of Italy’s annual gross domestic product, a report from anti-crime group SOS Impresa said in January.

The mob had €65bn in cash on hand, making it the nation’s No 1 bank, the group estimated.