Rome Scratchcard Fraud Probe Leads To €25m Asset Seizure
Italian financial police in Rome have seized more than €25m in assets from five former employees of a company that holds a state concession for scratchcards.
Prosecutors allege the five used their system access to identify winning tickets before they were sold, then had relatives and friends buy them.
The allegations have yet to be tested in the accounting court, and the concessionaire itself is described as having no part in the matter. For background on how instant-win games work, see our guide to online scratchcards.
What Is Alleged
The Guardia di Finanza's Rome provincial command carried out the seizure on behalf of the regional prosecutor of the Court of Auditors for Lazio, according to Italian reports including La Stampa and Il Messaggero.
Its purpose is to secure compensation for the damage allegedly caused to the Customs and Monopolies Agency, which oversees gambling in Italy.
Investigators say the five used their access credentials to manipulate the concessionaire's servers and identify four winning tickets in advance.
Two carried a top prize of €7m each and two carried €5m each, so the prizes total €24m, as noted by La Repubblica. Relatives and friends then allegedly bought the tickets at retailers in Italy to which the concessionaire had shipped them.
Why The Prosecutors Call It Damage To The State
The prosecutors' argument is that insider information removed the element of chance. In ordinary conditions, they say, those prizes might never have been claimed and would have stayed with the state.
La Repubblica reports that the accounting prosecutor notified the five of an invitation to submit their defence in March, and that the arguments they put forward were not enough, in the prosecutor's view, to overcome the allegations. The case then moved to a summons and a request for a conservative seizure.
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What Was Seized
The Guardia di Finanza seized 25 properties, a mix of apartments, villas, garages and cellars, across the provinces of Rome, Viterbo, Treviso, Taranto, Grosseto and Reggio Calabria.
It also took five cars and motorbikes and financial assets. The total of more than €25m corresponds to the damage to the public purse that prosecutors claim against the five, per La Repubblica.
A conservative seizure is a precaution to protect the state's claim, not a finding of liability, and the five have not been convicted of anything in this proceeding. A designated judge will decide in chambers whether to confirm, change or revoke the freeze before individual responsibility is settled at the accounting trial.
Reports differ on timing: Il Messaggero says the facts date from 2019, while La Repubblica places them in 2020. Italian reports describe the concessionaire as entirely unconnected to the alleged conduct.
