Italian Mafia has 'larger annual budget than European Union'
Brutal recession and banks' reluctance to lend leaves more businesses turning to mob for help
ITALY'S Mafia groups have a bigger annual budget than the European Union, the country's foreign ministry has claimed.
Giovanni Brauzzi, security policy director at the ministry, claims the Mob's annual income has passed the €200bn (£166bn) mark compared with the total EU spend of €140bn (£116bn).
His estimate marks a 43 per cent increase from the figure produced by the Confesercenti, an organisation of Italian businesses, which in 2012 claimed that the Mafia generated an annual turnover of €140bn (£116bn).
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Confesercenti report described the Mafia as the "biggest bank" in the country with €65bn in liquidity and said a growing number of small and medium sized businesses were coming into contact with the Mob.
Experts have warned that Italy's brutal recession, combined with its banks' reluctance to lend money, has left more and more businesses turning to organised crime for help.
Speaking at a conference in Brussels this week, Brauzzi said that crime syndicates in Italy had also begun to shift their "investments" overseas, with just 10 per cent of their budget still parked within the country. "The rest they invest in countries in Europe and elsewhere," he said. "They have good friends everywhere."
Organised crime has infiltrated "the most important companies working in financial transactions", he said. "Corruption is the easiest way of doing business in their framework."
The news comes as the centre-right Forza Italia party, led by disgraced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was this week accused of trying to destroy a bill aimed at stopping the Mafia's ability to sell votes to corrupt politicians in the south of Italy, reports The Independent.
The money-for-votes racket is a key means by which the Mafia earns money and maintains power and influence.
The legislation, which has already passed through the Senate, is at risk of being smothered by 1,000 or so amendments from Forza Italia MPs.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Do youth curfews work?
Today's big question Banning unaccompanied children from towns and cities is popular with some voters but is contentious politically
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Sleaze baack!'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 20 - 26 April
Puzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By Rebecca Messina, The Week UK Published
-
Do youth curfews work?
Today's big question Banning unaccompanied children from towns and cities is popular with some voters but is contentious politically
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Sydney mall attacker may have targeted women
Speed Read Police commissioner says gender of victims is 'area of interest' to investigators
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Why are kidnappings in Nigeria on the rise again?
Today's Big Question Hundreds of children and displaced people are missing as kidnap-for-ransom 'bandits' return
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
How the idyllic Galapagos Islands became staging post in world drug trade
Under the radar Ecuador's crackdown on gang violence forces drug traffickers into Pacific routes to meet cocaine demand
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Armed gangs, prison breaks and on-air hostages: how Ecuador was plunged into crisis
The Explainer Gangs launch deadly revenge after president declares state of emergency following escape of feared drug boss from prison
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Ecuador tips toward chaos amid prison breaks, armed TV takeover
Speed Read New President Daniel Noboa authorized the military to 'neutralize' powerful drug-linked gangs after they unleashed violence and terror across Ecuador
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Prague shooting: student kills 14 people at university
Speed reads Police believe suspect, who killed himself, may have shot his father before carrying out mass murder
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published