Police in Italy's northern region of Lombardy have seized over a million euros in assets from an Egyptian national who allegedly sold fraudulent documents claiming to provide hospitality to immigrants, most of whom were asylum seekers, to help them obtain stay permits.
On May 23, Italian police seized assets estimated to be worth around a million and a half euros of a 37-year-old Egyptian national residing in Italy but detained for over six months.
The man had been arrested for allegedly selling fraudulent documents attesting to providing hospitality to immigrants, most of whom asylum seekers, in order for the latter to be granted stay permits.
The man was arrested in early December and is currently detained in Piacenza.
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15 real estate properties and five plots of land
The investigation into the property and assets of the Egyptian man and his 25-year-old wife, also an Egyptian national, began after numerous anomalous requests made by the man to be allowed to provide hospitality to other Egyptians.
The man was found to have purchased several real estate properties in the Pioltello area (Milan) and various municipalities in the Sondrio province -- 15 real estate properties and five plots of land, including a vineyard -- placing them under the names of his wife and another individual.
The inquiry into the Egyptian man and seven other foreign nationals centered on charges of alleged fraudulent representation in public deeds, false ownership of assets, and self-laundering.
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Profits exceeded 100,000 euros between 2020 and 2023
Investigators discovered numerous sales of false declarations of hospitality to asylum seekers to help them obtain stay permits.
Between June 30, 2020, and August 8, 2023, the couple filed 60 declarations of hospitality and seven fake residence registrations for non-EU immigrants in the Pioltello municipality.
In exchange, they received over 100,000 euros. For a declaration attesting to providing hospitality in Milan's outskirts, they charged between 700 and 800 euros, while for one in the Tresivio and Teglio municipalities in Sondrio, the fee was 600 euros. For residence registrations, the charge was 1,000 euros.
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