Anti-mafia judge Antonio Laudati is under investigation in Perugia for illegal access to computer systems and databases. But also forgery and disclosure of confidential information, in collaboration with Marshal of the Guardia di Finanza Pasquale Striano. The investigation dates back to August 3 following a report from Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. Besides him, among the victims of the case are Daniela Santanchè, Ignazio La Russa, Denis Verdini, Matteo Renzi, Francesco Totti and the president of the Football Federation Gabriele Gravina. The investigation is coordinated by prosecutor Raffaele Cantone. This starts with the so-called SOS, that is, the suspicious transaction reports that Bankitalia receives and processes to report financial crimes.
Assignment
According to the prosecution's hypothesis, there were episodes of filing cases against politicians, personalities, entrepreneurs and athletes. Bank accounts and 740 victims were also spied on. Laudati is currently deputy prosecutor of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate. As attorney general of Bari, he investigated the trend of girls offered to Berlusconi by Giampi Tarantini. Laudati, he writes today The Republic, received a summons from the cantonal prosecutor's office. The story of the investigation begins precisely from DNA. Who receives SOS reports from banking institutions and financial operators for official reasons. Very often these are simple declarations concerning unusual money transfers or deposits of valuables and jewelry. These are not documents which in themselves constitute decisive evidence, but only possible avenues of investigation which sometimes reveal perfectly legitimate operations.
Four case files
Crosetto reported the crime in August following a newspaper article Tomorrow which talked about compensation received from Leonardo and other Italian arms companies. Investigations by the Rome public prosecutor's office made it possible to identify Striano, a member of the capital's monetary police but seconded to the SOS group, as the author of certain access to public databases presumed illegal by the magistrates. In Laudati, however, four cases of filing are contested. Some of them are not linked to public figures. Laudati did not appear for questioning. Striano was the person who physically accessed the databases at the request of external parties. And sometimes this information ended up in the newspapers. But also to other beneficiaries of confidential information.
Three journalists targeted by investigation
Three journalists are under investigation in this case. The marshal used the right not to answer before the magistrates. The investigations covered a period from 2019 until a few months ago, when Striano was dismissed from his post by anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, who is collaborating in the investigation. There are hundreds of cases. Investigators consider them illegal because they did not have an SOS in advance to justify them. The contribution could therefore be either to give information to the press, or to transform it into criminal information, or even to use it for blackmail purposes. “The objective was in any case to strike the enemies,” specifies an investigator.
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