The Guardia di Finanza (GdF), Italy’s financial police, has begun an investigation into more than 58,000 people who, between 2009 and 2014, entered into financial transactions between Italy and San Marino worth more than EUR33bn (USD36.2bn).
In a press release, the GdF stated that the subjects of the program (codenamed Ivory Tower) were identified following research undertaken in recent years into the illegal export of capital, into money laundering, and into tax evasion between San Marino and Italy.
The GdF’s action was instituted following the “Varano” judicial investigation that began in 2008 in Forli. The initial checks made by the GdF regarded over 1,050 transactions identified by its preliminary investigations and resulted in the discovery of over EUR850m in undeclared income tax and EUR153m in undeclared value- added tax.