A new card scandal is shaking the Italian public scene, provoking indignant reactions among politicians. On Monday, October 28, members of the executive, the majority but also the opposition remained alarmed by the implications of a wide-ranging investigation into illegal access to state data banks.
The objective of the operation would have been, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, to create files that would later be the subject of financial transactions for blackmail purposes, to fuel a “large market for confidential information”, in words chosen by Giovanni Melillo, national anti-mafia prosecutor, during a press conference on Saturday. For her part, the president of the council, Giorgia Meloni, declared that“no rule of law can tolerate registration”, adding that Italy could be faced with a case of “subversion”.
The investigation, led from Milan, identified six main suspects, placed under house arrest or suspended from duty. However, in total there are 51 people, accused of having contributed to this information capture system that reveals serious security flaws related to access to confidential databases of the Italian State. Several companies that form the backbone of the system were also declared bankrupt by the Prosecutor’s Office. Most are private investigator companies. The suspects include former members of the police and officers still in service.
At the heart of the system, a private investigation company
The variety of databases is surprising. In fact, the suspects would have found a way to access files used in the fight against tax evasion, tax collection and the reporting of suspicious transactions by the Guardia di finanza, the Italian customs police. The database common to the different Italian police forces that allows people to check their criminal records was also forced.
The people targeted by the attack are mainly from the business world, but journalists and some high-level politicians are also cited. This is the case of the senator and former president of the council Matteo Renzi, the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, and the latter’s son, Gerónimo. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, could also have been the target of a hack.
At the heart of the system is a private research company, Equalize, whose majority shareholder is a heavyweight on the Milanese scene, Enrico Pazzali, president of the Milan Fair Foundation. With his partner Carmine Gallo, a high-level police officer who led high-profile investigations in the past, he would have created, depending on the development of the investigation, a network of private security companies and IT experts.
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