St-George-the-Mafia-basher,
Here's a new crusade for you:
European agencies smash Mafia butter fraud
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- European authorities have uncovered a scam by the Italian Mafia to sell fake butter and defraud the European Union budget, European Union (EU) officials said Wednesday.
The EU's anti-fraud office, known as OLAF, said more than 16,000 tons of adulterated butter had been produced between 1997 and 1999 and sold for more than $43 million.
EU subsidies were then obtained as if the butter had been real, it said in a statement, adding that it was still trying to determine the loss to the EU's budget.
Public officials were bribed to turn a blind eye to the adulterated butter, made mainly of chemical additives, beef tallow and oil intended for cosmetics and other non-food uses.
Much of it went into food production but large quantities were seized. "In one case, a product seized in a Belgian factory which had originated in Italy contained no trace of milk or milk products," OLAF said.
The probe began in 1999 when the District Antimafia Branch of the Naples Prosecutor's Office discovered that a gang of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia, had set up a "holding group" that had become a major producer of butter for industrial use in Italy.
About 70 searches have been carried out at businesses and homes in Italy, France and Belgium in the past few weeks and there have been numerous arrests in Italy and France.
The probe involved several Italian agencies, the Serious Financial Crime Office of the French Judicial Police and OLAF.
OLAF said members of the Naples-based Mafia, the Camorra, had worked with businessmen in northern Italy as well as French and Belgian companies.
Italian authorities have identified distributors of the adulterated butter, dealers, shippers, suppliers of false invoices and supervisory officials who took bribes.
The EU subsidizes butter through export refunds paid for butter sold outside the bloc or through aid for the processing of butter sold inside the EU for baking purposes.
Copyright [July] 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Again, George: no Albanian thug can be spotted in the chain of command of that latest EU foodscam.
Oh, while I think of it.... I've got some tasty EU patisseries that I won't be able to finish off alone.... Fancy? |
