11-11-2004, 04:57 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 10,089
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Professor 'led gang that took EU millions'
Telegraph Article
Quote:
A criminal gang of professionals and academics led by a Sicilian professor defrauded the European Union of millions of pounds in a fake youth training programme, Italian police claimed yesterday after a string of dawn raids across the country.
Among those arrested was the ring's alleged mastermind, Prof Salvatore Messina, 51, a Sicilian academic with the Université Paris 13 in France, who also lectures at the University of Palermo.
After the raids in Palermo, Rome, Milan, Brescia, Turin and the southern city of Campobasso, police held the professor and six associates on fraud charges. Another 13 people were cautioned.
Police seized a total of 39 bank accounts and £3.5 million, as well as tracing other illegally obtained funding to offshore companies based in tax havens.
Police claim that up to £13 million had been creamed off.
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