Prosecutors in the northeastern city of Padua on Tuesday (June 7) completed a probe and formally placed seven people under investigation. The suspects, Italian and Chinese citizens, included two lawyers, are being investigated for criminal association to favor illegal immigration and making fraudulent claims.

The investigation conducted by the local flying squad uncovered two alleged criminal associations led by two lawyers and three businessmen who are accused of heading fictitious companies, investigative sources said.

The companies were based in the Veneto cities and towns of Padua, Limena, Monselice, Maserà, Villorba (Treviso), Pettorazza Grimani and Lendinara (Rovigo). The lawyers and business owners allegedly cooperated with two Chinese women, one of whom owns a massage salon, who got in contact with Chinese citizens irregularly residing in Italy.

Undocumented migrants were allegedly required to pay sums ranging between €500 and €1,000 per person, in exchange for fake job contracts or letters of employment. The migrants were also given wage slips, which they could present when applying for a new stay permit, or for a renewal of one, at police headquarters and at immigration offices in the provinces of Padua, Venice and Treviso, investigative sources said.

At least 50 fake job contracts discovered and documented

Flying squad police officers and the immigration office of Padua's police headquarters cross-checked data and discovered that a number of foreign citizens had been fictitiously hired by several companies, according to investigators.

The companies were probed because they had allegedly hired too many workers compared to the activities actually carried out. Stay permit requests were also filed by the same lawyer, the sources said.

An unspecified number of non-EU citizens were involved -- mainly Asians, as well as Africans -- between 2019 and 2021. At least 50 fake new job contracts were discovered and documented, the sources added.

Accusations of prostitution and fake marriages

The migrants were hired as company employees as well as domestic workers, according to investigators. A number of Chinese citizens also allegedly obtained a permit through fake marriages. One of them married an Albanian citizen who pressed charges once he discovered the scam, investigative sources said.

One of the women under investigation is also accused of pimping and of favoring the prostitution of Chinese nationals in apartments apparently managed as massage centers, including one in Padua and another in Codroipo (Udine).

Thanks to revenue coming from the regularization scam and pimping, one of the women under investigation had planned investments, including opening new massage centers in Bari, Rome and in Sicily, investigators said.

Police found several passports and identity cards for Chinese women in one of the suspect's home, as well as birth certificates of a number of Italian men, according to the same source.