Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/546399
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 JULY 2015 6 News Italian crime 'alliance' had Malta base A brief history of Malta's mafia connections CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But fur- ther investigation has also revealed that the son of 'slot machine king' Antonio Padovani – Liuigi Fabio Padovani, 40 – has been located the same address where a gaming consultancy firm partly owned by former police inspector Daniel Zammit, is registered at. Company records show that Lui- gi Fabio Padovani has an identity card number that has him living at the Compass Point apartment complex in Swieqi, where Tyche Consultancy is registered. The former police inspector, once detailed with the Economic Crimes Unit, set up the firm with his brother Roderick and Italian national Francesco Airò, who is also registered at the company's Swieqi address, in May 2015. Luigi Fabio Padovani is uncon- nected to Operation Gambling – which this week saw the arrest of Mario Gennaro and other Malta- based associates – and there is no evidence to suggest his address at Tyche Consultancy links the company with organised crimi- nality. But the connection also lends even more credence to Opera- tion Gambling's insistence that Malta's financial services and remote gaming industry allowed the Camorra-Ndrangheta-Mafia pact to launder their criminal proceeds. Reggio Calabria's prosecutor Fe- derico Cafiero de Raho explains in his dossier that in 2006, Grasso and Padovani ran the gaming brand Sportandgames Srl and G.A.R.I. Srl – both companies in which Luigi Fabio Padovani held shares. Padovani was later arrested for Mafia association, and in 2011, had his €40 million asset wealth seized – together with his son's F355 Berlinetta. Now, according to Cafiero de Raho, Gennaro was running the 'Ndrangheta's end in the Grasso- Padovani pact. "There are precise elements allowing us the sure identification of Gennaro as be- ing involved in promoting the businesses [formerly] ran by the Grasso-Padovani duo." Awaiting extradition Earlier this week, Mario Gen- naro was arrested for his role as mastermind behind the web of il- legal online betting and gambling in Italy on behalf of the 'Ndrang- heta. Six Italian nationals – Gennaro, Margherita Giudetti, 34, Franc- esco Ripepi, 38, Alessandro Ciaffi, 40, Rocco Ripepi, 36 and Fortu- nato Stracuzzi, 37 – connected to the Betuniq brand who were liv- ing in Malta, were arrested under a European Arrest Warrant. Gennaro ran the Betuniq brand in Malta, controlling 1,500 gam- ing and betting agencies spread all over the Italian territory. The Malta Gaming Authority suspended with immediate effect the licenses of Uniq Group Lim- ited (Betuniq) and Betsolution4U Limited. Gennaro was described as 'Ndrangheta's "new man" (homo novus). Italian police had been following Gennaro's movements closely, especially his frequent trips to Malta, where he partici- pated in poker tournaments with notorious people from Calabria well known for their affection for casinos and sports betting. Anti-mafia magistrates conclud- ed that Gennaro's frequent trips to Malta and his participation in poker tournaments confirmed that the mafia's money was being transferred to Malta. Other Malta-registered compa- nies included Uniq Group, Uniq Shopping, Tebaral Holding and Teberal Trading, Betsolution4U ltd, and Fast Run Limited. All form part of the international Be- tuniq brand. Uniq Group is owned by Start Games Limited, whose share- holders are the fiduciary company GVM Holdings, owned by the law firm of former prime minis- ter Lawrence Gonzi. GVM offers its fiduciary services to dozens of gaming companies, and it appears as the nominal shareholder in the companies Uniq Group, Uniq Shopping, and Enetsport Service. Enetsport is then owned by Start Games, Solution for Bet Limited, OGC Company Limited, and MGame Holding Limited – which companies in turn also own Best- Solution 4U. THERE is no shortage of Italian police investigations in which Malta gets referenced as a finan- cial services clearing house for clients with direct and indirect links to organised crime. In Operation Tibet, Milanese po- lice had busted a secret 'Ndrang- heta bank ran by Giuseppe Pen- sabene – boss of the Desio clan (cosca) – who oversaw a money laundering network of firms for crime bosses. An intercepted telephone call on 6 July 2012, between Pensabene and Emanuele Sangiovani, has the two men discussing the relocation of their companies' registered ad- dresses to elude finance police. Sangiovanni boasted of the way the company set-up offers a 'blind' structure that covers up ownership. "The company is good because it has double tier, that is… first a Maltese fiduciary, then a Hong Kong company, so prac- tically inaccessible. The adminis- trator is a Hong Kong architect." Pensabene asks how he would manage his affairs in Italy, so Sangiovanni suggests that he gets himself a power of attorney with someone he trusts, in Malta. "But it will cost you." Pensabene eventually got 15 years' jail for his role as the Seveso banker for the 'Ndrangheta, tak- ing down with him other mem- bers of the Desio clan. Evidence of the ease with which organised crime bosses travel to Malta and back are the arrests of- ten made at catamaran departure points: in August 2014, Camorra boss Aldo Gionta, 42, was arrested while trying to abscond to Malta. He was sentenced to four years in jail for his failed escape. Gionta, aka 'The Poet', was ar- rested together with three other accomplices, aged 23, 32, and 38, all from the Torre Annunziata clan of Sant'Antonio Abate with a fake ID and €1,000 in cash. Gion- ta's father Valentino, currently held in Italy's maximum security prison under the notorious 41-bis law, is the founder of the clan of Torre Annunziata. And then there was Sicilian mafioso Sebastiano Brunno, aka 'Neddu 'a crapa'. The 56-year- old boss was arrested in October 2014 as he was walking out on the Bugibba promenade. He had been on the wanted list since 2009. Maltese police spent three months tracking him down after Catania's anti-mafia unit located the 'superlatitante' – super-fugi- tive – on the island. Brunno, the boss of the Nardo cosca, faces a life sentence for Mafia association and a 2009 homicide. Perhaps the case that shows the intimacy with which relations can be built between Malta and Italy is a telephone interception that name-dropped Bastjan Dalli, the brother of former minister John Dalli, as a connection for a busi- nessman in a Mafia investigation. Bastjan was mentioned in an Italian police investigation on il- legal online gambling and the Mafia, dating back to 2010. He was however extraneous to the case itself. The inquiry report, which Mal- taToday has seen, was from the Naples prosecutor into the arrest of 29 persons by the national anti- mafia unit, that had targeted the Zaza-Mazzarella clan, which was planning to open an online gam- ing server based in Malta. According to the police, impli- cated names included the clan's money launderer Ciro Smiraglia, incarcerated since February 2014; Andrea Ricci, his business part- ner; and Mafia boss Gaetano Fidanzati, who died in October 2013 aged 78 and was formerly on a most wanted list from 2008 till his arrest in 2009. According to the Naples police, it was Fidanzati who in 2010 of- fered up the name of Bastajn Dalli as "the brother of the prime min- ister" and that there was "no need to go to Fenec(h)..." to open up an online casino. Ricci would have relayed this conversation to Smiraglia, and then later received an SMS text from Fidanzati with Bastjan Dal- li's mobile phone number. "Tell him you are my brother... Gae." In the Italian news magazine L'Espresso, journalist Giovanni Tizian goes further in his report on 'How the Camorra became European', where he claims that Nicola Schiavone – son of Ca- salesi boss Francesco Schiavone – planted part of his family's for- tunes here. According to turn- coat Francesco Della Corte, Schi- avone's right-hand man Nicola Della Corte "handled the clan's economic interests in Malta, Ro- mania, Corsica and Emilia Ro- magna." And if financial interest were not enough, the 'Ndrangheta has even been hosted in Malta for a laughable freemason's investi- ture. In 2012, the Reggio police arrested 39 criminals as part of Operation Saggezza, among them 'consigliere' Giuseppe Varacalli, boss of the local Ardore clan. Tel- ephonic interceptions from 2007 had revealed that the 'Ndrangheta was using freemasonry as a step into spheres of business and po- litical influence: Varacalli himself was heard telling someone else that his ceremony of investiture had taken place in Malta. !* !.ŏ"+.ŏ+*/0.10%+*ŏ+.'/Čŏ1,,(5Čŏ */0((0%+*ŏĒŏ+))%//%+*%*#ŏ+"ŏāŏ //!*#!.ŏ%"0ŏ0ŏ(+'ŏĆČŏ++.ŏČŏ%/.ŏ!3øČŏ*ŏ3**ŏ1/%*#ŏ*2%.+*ġ )!*0((5ŏ.%!* (5ŏ%*0ċŏĨ1.ŏ!"čŏŏąĥĂĀāĆĩ û!./ŏ(+/!ŏ+*ŏāā0$ŏ1#1/0ŏĂĀāĆŏ0ŏāĀċĀĀ)ċ +.ŏ)+.!ŏ%*"+.)0%+*ŏ2%/%0ŏ333ċ$+1/%*#10$+.%05ċ#+2ċ)0 ŏ ŏŏ Antonio Padovani Mario Gennaro