Organized crime syndicates in Italy are increasingly using legitimate businesses to launder their illicit proceeds, particularly cash-intensive firms and small mom-and-pop stores, according to a U.N. researcher.
More than 50 Italian financial institutions processed tens of millions of dollars on behalf of Russian politicians, oligarchs and criminals accused of misappropriating and laundering nearly $21 billion in state funds from 2011 to 2014.
Intesa SanPaolo and its Manhattan affiliate must forfeit $235 million to New York for obscuring Iran's involvement in billions of dollars of transactions and "deliberately" concealing potentially incriminating information from state examiners, among other violations.
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