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Italy Sees Rise in Illicit Finance in Gold Trade, Textile Imports

By Valentina Pasquali

Flows of suspicious funds associated with Chinese textile imports are among multiple emerging threats to the integrity of Italy's financial system, according to the country's financial intelligence unit. In an annual report released this month, Italy's Unita di Informazione Finanziaria, or UIF, claimed that Chinese exporters have begun regularly under-invoicing sales of textiles to Italian firms to evade customs duties and sales tax. The Italian firms then use obscure financial channels to settle the difference without alerting authorities. Participants in these schemes have managed to funnel substantial amounts of proceeds to China through money transfer businesses, typically by structuring their...

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