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Italy Goes "Cyprus" On Sicilian Mafia, Seizes Record $1.7 Billion In Cash And Assets

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/03/2013 09:24 -0400

Think only Cyprus is where the government goes after "evil", tax-evading oligarchs? Think again. Overnight news broke that the Italian police have seized a record $1.7 billion in cash and property from a single person, a Sicilian "alternative energy" entrepreneur alleged to have close ties to the Mafia. As Bloomberg reports, Italy's anti-Mafia investigators said in a statement today that Vito Nicastri, a 57-year-old native of Alcamo, near Trapani, was placed under surveillance and must remain in Alcamo for three years. He is accused of declaring for tax purposes a fraction of the value of his businesses. Italian media have dubbed Nicastri the "king of alternative energy" for his vast holdings in wind farms and photovoltaic cell companies. Police said the seizures include 43 companies; 98 pieces of real estate including buildings, homes, stores and land; 66 bank accounts, credit cards and investment funds.

And so, in two brief weeks, cash-strapped European nations have declared war on both Russian billionaire oligarchs and the Sicilian mafia. One wonders how long until Swiss authorities follow suit and "impair" Triad and Yakuza savings in Zurich and Geneva, and sets off a global "us versus them" scorched earth war?

Perhaps it is time to petition Coppoloa to go easy on the winemaking and instead prepare to shoot the latest installment of what will soon be the Godfather quadrilogy based on real events?

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Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:23 | 3403072 Quinvarius

ok. i am just making the point that whiles crimes were suggested as justifucation, no criminal legal procedures were followed. i am saying the jews were victimized in the same way under hitler.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:53 | 3402925 Downtoolong

Central Banksters vs. Mafia = Crime on Crime Gansta Wars, money style.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:51 | 3402926 Confundido

Anyone remembers the scene with Joe Pesci and the Bankster in Casino? Priceless....Here's the link: http://youtu.be/mbwqeSV8Wc4

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:54 | 3402943 Sandmann

Any chance of NYPD going after Rotten Cores in Big Apple ?

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 14:40 | 3404534 10PastMidnight

NYPD is the rotten core in new york, along with Don bloomberg.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:55 | 3402946 azzhatter

I'd love to see a little war betwenn banksters and mafia

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:56 | 3402950 NEOSERF

Wow...always suspected bankers were more psycho than criminals but watching the two groups go at eachother in the coming years should make for some serious car bombing...

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:58 | 3402961 Bicycle Repairman

They took $1.7 B from this guy. Honest. No, you can't count it.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 09:58 | 3402963 IamtheREALmario

In the past, the central banking empire had a peaceful and symbiotic relationship with the mafia, the church and corrupt governments. Looks as if that peace is being broken and the central banking empire has decided that there can be only one.

Not sure how the mafia, Jesuit army and government officials with second thoughts are going to react.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:07 | 3403008 Global Hunter

I posted the words "symbiotic relationship" in my post 6 minutes after yours, I hadn't read your post when I was doing mine (I work slowly) :) but its in plain sight for anybody to see that opens their eyes.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:02 | 3402982 jeebus

I'll know I've made it to the big leagues when I have 66 bank accounts.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:04 | 3402990 Global Hunter

The mafia has a big interest in green energy (for the most part a government initiative).

There's a clear pattern of so called "bad guys" whether they be drug cartels, terrorists, law breaking banksters etc. groups that we're supposed to fear, and supposedly need protection from by our governments, that are flourishing in a symbiotic relationship with the very governments that the narrative states oppose them.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:10 | 3403013 Aurora Ex Machina

Been on the cards for a while now this one.

SCAPIN: To tell you the truth, there are few things impossible to me when I once set about them. Heaven has bestowed on me a fair enough share of genius for the making up of all those neat strokes of mother wit, for all those ingenious gallantries to which the ignorant and vulgar give the name of impostures; and I can boast, without vanity, that there have been very few men more skilful than I in expedients and intrigues, and who have acquired a greater reputation in the noble profession. But, to tell the truth, merit is too ill rewarded nowadays, and I have given up everything of the kind since the trouble I had through a certain affair that happened to me.

OCTAVE: How? What affair, Scapin?

SCAPIN: An adventure in which justice and I fell out.

OCTAVE: Justice and you?

SCAPIN: Yes; we had a trifling quarrel.

SILVESTRE: You and justice?

SCAPIN: Yes. She used me very badly; and I felt so enraged against the ingratitude of our age that I determined never to do anything for anybody. But never mind; tell me about yourself all the same.[Comedy Overture]

Not to be a spoil-sport, but the Washington Post foreshadowed this back in January [Source], and the initial arrests were made in February:

According to Windpower Intelligence, Iberdrola partnered with Italian company Api Nova Energy, part of Grupo Empresarial, to build the project. It said Alcantara was developed by Societa Energie Rinnovabili, which is 50% owned by Iberdrola.

This is not the first time Italian anti-mafia police have made arrests related to wind power development.

null

There is an ongoing investigation into mafia involvement in the 96MW Isola Capo Rizzutto wind farm in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

The wind farm - one of Italy's largest - continues to be operated by a court-ordered administrator after being confiscated by judicial authorities last July [2012], an arrangement that could potentially last for years [source].

What's actually interesting is that although there's been allegations of the usual shoddy materials / over-charging etc, this was seen by some as a genuine long-term dive into legitimate business by certain crime families. So, less of the "prosecute the bad-guys" as "you're not welcome at this table" and "by the by, thanks for the free wind farms".

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:07 | 3403014 ziggy59

Basically, .Gov doesnt like competition...

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:11 | 3403023 Judge Crater

Why stop with the Mafia? The tax authorities in Italy should target the Columbian druglords who bailed out HSBC bank. Just remember, Guardia di Finanza, those druglords play rough.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:14 | 3403033 RaceToTheBottom

Go short insurance companies but long banksters? Oh it has become sooo complex

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:23 | 3403036 orangegeek

This is window dressing. Something for the media to write about.

A week from now, it will all be handed back and this will all be forgotten.

Governments steal from the bottom feeders, not from billionaires - billionaires finance the politicians into office.

Remember Cyprus? The insiders were informed in February.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:20 | 3403061 marriedgeordie

this basically means that the authorities have known all along about all the illicit bullshit going on, who has done what, killed whom, stole what from whom, when, how, and why. it's just that up to now they have been quietly taking bribes and closing their eyes on all that crap.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:23 | 3403070 chasman

So, let me see if I have this correct! It's perfectly fine and legal for a government to steal money from the citizens and force them to be subservient BUT when a individual does the exact same thing they are criminals.

All I can say is I would not feel one ONCE of sorry if a few bankers and politicians and law enforcement individuals woke up (or not) in bed with a horse head next to them.

People need to start pushing back and I mean hard. People are going to start turning a blind eye to bad things happening to these POS politicians and Bankers.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:25 | 3403083 marriedgeordie

better if their horses wake up with bankers' and politicians' heads next to them...

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:28 | 3403098 ToNYC

Godfather IV: Take the relationships, tradition, honor, trust, family; leave the money.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:28 | 3403106 cheetahbaby

"If we wanna tings to stay the same, then some tings a gotta change.". "Is beezness, Charlie.". CB

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:31 | 3403121 Telemakhos

How is seizing $1.7B a record, when they seized $1.9B of "green" mafia assets in 2010?

Reuters: Italy seizes $1.9 billion of assets as Mafia goes green (Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:02am EDT)

Most of the seized assets were located in Sicily, home of the Cosa Nostra, and in southern Calabria, home of its sister crime organization, the 'Ndrangheta.

At the center of the investigation was Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri, 54, a man known as the "Lord of the Wind" because of his vast holdings in alternative energy concerns, mostly wind farms.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni called the operation "the largest seizure ever made" against the Mafia.

Did this just not get properly memory-holed at MiniTruth before recycling into "news" three years later?

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:36 | 3403137 ak_khanna

No criminal or tax evader can exist anywhere in the world without the patronage of politicians or because of the weak systems set in place by them. The politicians can sacrifice anyone just to save their own necks. Now the politicians are competing directly with the bank robbers who walk into a bank with guns demanding that the customers deposits be handed over to them.

The world debt crises can be eased substantially by just cutting the salaries and perks drawn by the elected politicians and reducing their lavish lifestyles to one that is borne by the majority of the country's citizens.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article35345.html
www.letstalkmoney2012.in

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:39 | 3403164 monad

Now a whole lot of Italian politicians are going to jump. I bet Monti jumps, leaving President Francis to make nice.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 13:56 | 3403166 ToNYC

Italy's version of the J.D. Rockefeller plan B: bankrupting the crude energy alternatives by whatever means necessary, and calling it justice and just is, just ours.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:46 | 3403212 MSimon

I'll believe they are going after the Mafia when they legalize dope.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 10:48 | 3403214 ZeroPoint

"You're either with us, or your with the financial terrorists."

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:03 | 3403289 foodstampbarry

We are circling the drain as a species. How can this not end in blood - lot's of it.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 18:03 | 3405739 monad

I want to play poker with you.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:18 | 3403351 vincent

Move away from the blast.

These fellas will fight back.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:17 | 3403401 Snoopy the Economist

I didn't know the mafia still existed. Isn't the mafia just competition for the gubmint? Why would teh gubmint allow them to exist?

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:23 | 3403441 Shizzmoney

You'd think the mafia would learn by now that putting money in banks isn't the brightest idea.....but yet again....that is why they are criminals.....because only "criminals" GET CAUGHT.

Although if you are a lover of freedom and anarchy, this is a good trend.

PLEASE, bankers and the technocratic government stooges who do their bidding, PLEASE keep fucking with the Russian oligarchs and the Italian mafia.

Considering the bioggest gangs in the world, the military and the police, aren't man enough to arrest these motherfuckers - maybe finally someone will do something about it and kill off these parasites and send them to the shinebox, where they belong.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:25 | 3403458 Cacete de Ouro

You mean, let me understand this … cuz I … maybe its me, maybe I’m a little fucked up maybe. I’m funny how? I mean funny, like I’m a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? Whattya you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:28 | 3403482 MrBoompi