Italy's mafia launders money through wind farms

Jul 5, 2013 - Italy's mafia is increasingly investing in the renewable energy market, especially in wind energy farms, to launder money and benefit from EU grant and tax subsidies, Europol said in a report published on Thursday.

Monika Hohlmeier, member of the EU Parliament, warned that the mafia may be benefiting also from subsidies in Germany. It is unacceptable that by paying the renewable energy levy German taxpayers support Italy's organised crime groups, Bild cited Hohlmeier as saying. Hohlmeier has no information about projects in Germany in which the Italian mafia has invested, but it has ties to Germany, she said further.

“Italian OCGs today are the only EU economic competitors that suffer the opposite problem of all other entrepreneurs: too much cash money and not enough possibilities of reinvestment”, Europol said in the report, citing a well known Italian prosecutor.

At the start of April, Italian police seized EUR 1.3 billion (USD 1.67bn) in cash and property from Sicilian renewable energy entrepreneur Vito Nicastri who is said to have ties to the mafia. The seized assets include 43 wind and solar energy companies.

Nicastri is known also as the "king of wind" for his vast holdings in wind farms and photovoltaic companies.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.288)

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