Italian authorities have seized assets worth 15 billion euros ($20.4 billion) from suspected Mafia fronts since 1992 as reported by ANSA: “some seven billion of those 14.475 billion euros in assets were seized definitively, while the rest was returned or is still being reviewed.”
A big slice of that asset pie is $4 billion which has been seized since 2009 from suspected associates of Sicilian Mafia “boss of bosses” Matteo Messina Denaro as previously reported by Tom Kington for the Los Angeles Times: “police have ramped up seizures of businesses they believe are fronting for Messina Denaro,” and are hoping that he “could yet be betrayed by otherwise loyal entrepreneurs exasperated by the growing number of seizures of their bank accounts, properties and businesses.”
Interior Minister Alfano has “called for beefing up the state’s management of mafia assets as a key weapon needed for the battle against organized crime in Italy” as reported by ANSA.
U.S. law enforcement could take a page from Italy’s anti-Mafia playbook by targeting the so-called legitimate businesses which front for and otherwise associate with the mob families. Indeed, the Treasury Department should designate New York’s five families as transnational criminal organizations under Executive Order 13581 which would freeze their U.S. assets and ban Americans from conducting business with them. Inexplicably, the American authorities have ignored this powerful tool in going after the Italian mob and left its economic infrastructure in place.
Further reading that may be of interest:
Filed under: Mafia, Organized Crime Tagged: Asset Seizure, Cosa Nostra, Executive Order 13581, Matteo Messina Denaro, Sicilian Mafia
