Money laundering: blitz between Italy and Albania, arrests
Francesco Zummo, a 90-year-old entrepreneur from Palermo, a multi-suspect and partner of the former mafia mayor Vito Ciancimino, ended up under house arrest with charges of money laundering and self-laundering aggravated by transnationality in the context of an investigation by the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office
The accountant Fabio Petruzzella, brother of a Palermo magistrate, was also arrested: longa manus of the builder, he allegedly helped him to disappear, removing them from confiscation, 19 million moved to a bank account in Tirana.
The investigation also involves a group of Albanians who allegedly helped Zummo and his accomplices in their financial operations
Zummo was also investigated by judge Giovanni Falcone and was sentenced in the first instance to 5 years for aiding and abetting and then acquitted on appeal. In 2001, assets worth around 150 million euros were seized. Dozens of repentants - continues the Ansa - accused him of having moved large sums of money of illicit origin to credit institutions abroad and in particular in Switzerland, of having laundered the treasure of Ciancimino and of the building "sack" of Palermo and to have been "available" to Cosa Nostra in the past