Edited by Fabrizio Vedana

The economic crisis brought on by the pandemic has severely challenged the survival of many Italian businesses on the market and, at the same time, provided great opportunities for organized crime to infiltrate companies experiencing liquidity difficulties.

The results of the analysis conducted by Transcrime (Catholic University) with the support of Bureau van Dijk show that, in the initial phase of the Covid-19 emergency, ownership changes among Italian companies decreased compared to the same period in 2019. Despite this, some risk factors can be identified among the characteristics of the new owners that require further investigation as they potentially indicate high-risk situations for money laundering and criminal infiltration of the economy.

The study highlights the need for:

• extend and update the study to include changes in ownership after September 2020;
• extend monitoring to other forms of entrepreneurial activity and acquisition of control of companies (such as the establishment of new companies, forms of financing, control and influence through parasocial agreements and commissory agreements)
• Expand monitoring of applicants or beneficiaries of public subsidies provided by national and regional authorities as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Indeed, with the health emergency and the introduction of economic recovery programs at the national and European levels (primarily NextGenerationEU), criminal networks will seek further opportunities to drain public resources through the simultaneous use of corruption, fraud, accounting manipulation, money laundering, and misappropriation of public funds.

Particular attention must therefore be paid to investigating potential irregularities and misconduct in procurement procedures to access funds allocated at the national and European levels. Further research efforts should aim to advance our understanding of the new owners of Italian companies, as well as how they exercise control, to better understand which companies are most at risk of being misused to cover up illicit schemes and financial crime, and to reveal new patterns of corporate acquisition and influence. It will be important to develop new risk indicators to measure the opacity of corporate structures and strengthen anti-money laundering measures.