Monday, January 23 2006: Ecomafia

By Stefan Cândea and Sorin Ozon, stefancandea@crji.org , sorinozon@crji.org

Only three years after the first far-reaching mafia operation that ever took place in Romania , the Palermo prosecutors returned to Bucharest . It's a new case investigating a Casa Nostra money laundry network. Departing from a few news in the Italian newspapers, at the Italian end of the thread we discovered once more the legendary Sicilian godfather Bernardo Provenzano. At the same time, the investigation got us to several Italian businessmen activating in Romania , businessmen that have strong relationships with the Romanian business environment, the Romanian Government, as well as with the Romanian Intelligence. We have learned that the relationships network goes further to some of the former Soviet countries, but also to some Casa Nostra families residing in the USA and Canada . Public distribution contracts, gas and waste recycling are business ventures covering hundreds of millions of EUROS recycled by mafia families involved in international drugs traffic and several other criminal activities.

Mafia Fighting Prosecutors in Bucharest

Mafia fighting prosecutors from Palermo visited Romania at the beginning of December, after a Governmental Commission was appointed. The prosecutors and the DIICOT attorneys are investigating the money transfers made by the Cianciminos from Palermo . The money transfers were made between Italian and Romanian banks, and there is evidence that several amounts of money were laundered in Romania . The main target of the investigation is the company Agenda 21, where a member of the Cianciminos, Roberto, appears registered as a member of the Board of Directors and where Sirco, a company that had its accounts blocked in Italy , owned 51% of the share pack. The Board of Directors also counts as members other persons that are being investigated in Italy : Giovanni Lapis and Romano Tronci. Romano Tronci's wife, Santa Sidoti, is also registered as a shareholder. As soon as the Italian newspapers connected the Agenda 21 to the Cianciminos, Ciancimino, Tronci and Lapis disappeared from the list of the company's shareholders and from the Board of Directors.

The Italians motivated the blocking of back accounts of several companies by beginning to investigate several persons, Gianni Lapis, the lawyer Giorgio Ghiron and the Cianciminos among them.

Don Vito's Wealth

The income statement made by Massimo Ciancimino for the year 2003 shows that he made a total profit of 58 thousand Euros. On the other hand, the Italian investigators discovered that he was managing business activities valuing hundreds of millions of Euros and that he owns money made by enterprises registered on the names of a few screen persons. The Italians began the investigation when they found a note to Antonio Giuffre, a former Family member turned into an informer. The latter gave details on the relationships between Vito and Massimo Ciancimino, on one hand, and between Bernardo Provenzano and the other heads of the Casa Nostra, on the other hand. Giuffre's statements matched the ones made by other collaborators of the Italian Police, the so called Mafia pentitos. Therefore, the telephones of Massimo and Giovanni Lapis, former friend and adviser of don Vito, were tapped. Shortly investigators realized that all business decisions were made together with a lawyer from Rome , Giorgio Ghiron, who used to defend Don Vito in Court. Lapis, Ghiron, and the young Ciancimino had their phone conversations listened to for almost two years, and during all this time the Italian investigators followed the destinations of hundreds of millions of Euros that the three guys were taking with them all over the world. They invested the money in companies trading gas, dealing with waste recycling, or furniture manufacturing, as well as in aircraft companies, or in very expensive products such as yachts or custom-made cars. The Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” writes about an interesting element that shows how the Italians extended their operations to Russia and other former Soviet countries. Before blocking the accounts of Sirco, Lapis was about to conclude a contract with Gazprom, on the delivery of 6 million cubic meters of gas for the European market. All conditions were negotiated by Lapis with a former KGB colonel, Alexander Medvedev, whose business card was recently found by the Italian police in a garage belonging to Massimo Ciancimino, together with a draft for a contract detailing the future gas business. Moreover, the police found a thanking letter to Massimo, from the Russian association “The Putin Foundation”, where is mentioned that don Vito's son financed a Russian ballet show in Rome . Some connections of Ciancimino's Romanian business partners, lead to the Russian business community and, especially, to the former officers of the Russian Intelligence.

Ciancimino's Connections in Romania

According to the brief compiled by the Italian prosecutors, Ciancimino junior worked closely with Lapis and Ghiron, but also with other several persons that he trusted: Romano Tronci and his wife, Santa Sidotti and the brothers Sergio and Giuseppe Pileri. In the transcription of the phone conversations filed for Ciancimino, we have found several discussions with or about these characters. All these discussions refer to business activities managed by screen persons to the Cianciminos, business activities that were also developed in Romania .
According to our investigation, half way through this year, only the Pileri brothers and Santa Sidoti participated in Romanian business activities and owned shares in other companies than Agenda 21. At this moment, as stated by the Palermo prosecutors, the Pileri brothers are not the subject of any official investigation.

The Pileri Network

The Pileri brothers' business activities cover different activity fields, but the most important is the waste recycling. Through their companies, the Pileri brothers managed to associate with several local councils in Romanian towns for building ecologic recycling ramps or for the local sanitation. Bucharest , Ploiesti , Comarnic, Targu Mures, Tulcea, are towns where the Pileri brothers' business activities have been developing for years now. The main companies they own in this field are Agenda 21, Ecorec, Salub, and Ecologica SA (see the sketch).
The Racetrack Business
Another business where the Pileri brothers invested is the racetrack in Ploiesti . The racetrack was licensed for 49 years through a public auction to the Italian company Ippodromi & Citta, a company associated in the venture with the company “3 I” belonging to the Pileri brothers. Pileri also had a company active in the racetrack, Bio Agri Est, a company dealing with agricultural trade.
The Italian partner, Gaetano Papalia, manages several racetracks in Rome , Naples , Florence , and Siena . He declared to the local press that his company makes profit of about 400 million Euros every year from the betting on the horse races.

Piazza Italia

Sergio Pileri is the president of the association “Club Piazza Italia”, an association proposing itself to consolidate the Italian community in Romania . The association also issues an Italian magazine, mostly used for promoting the companies owned by the Pileri brothers. We can also mention here a restaurant that the Pileri brothers opened in Bucharest , the bistro “Il Toscanino”. Sergio Pileri is pretty active in the Italian community in Romania . He also appears as member of the Executive Council of Unimpresa Romania , an association representing the interests of the Italian business men in Romania .

Labor Power Placing and Agriculture
Another important part of the financial activity of the Pileri brothers in Romania is selecting and placing labor power. The Pileri brothers have founded the companies General Consulting and the Agency Obiettivo Lavoro. It is worth mentioning that the name of the second company is identical with the name of the main company in Eastern Europe dealing with placing labor power in Italy , which also opened an office in Bucharest . The companies Semtest and Bio Agri are active in agriculture, respectively in raising cereal plants and horned cattle.

Private Eye Agencies

The Pileri brothers also own shares in two companies dealing with investigative and protection activities. The companies are Mondial Pol and the Investigation Agency A & D. Both companies have the headquarters in Bucharest , on Tunari Street , where the headquarters of the Pileri brothers are.

The fact that the Pileri brothers obtained authorizations to own shares of these two companies is extremely interesting when considering articles issued by the Ploiesti newspaper Altphel and by Academia Catavencu. At the beginning of the year, the journalists presented secret documents of the Romanian Intelligence, where reference is made to the connection between the former head of the SRI Prahova, Corneliu Paltânea and Sergio Pileri. From all the documents it results that Paltânea protected Pileri, even though other departments in SRI requested or drew up informative notes on the latter's activity in Prahova. The articles also mentioned that after the retirement of Colonel Paltânea, the latter was appointed manager in SALUB, a company belonging to Agenda 21. The SRI Colonel was arrested by the DNA prosecutors, based on a complex investigation brief that targets the oil products smuggle managed by Paltânea from within the Romanian Intelligence for 10 years. The articles also pointed out that the investigation also targeted traffic with stolen cars from Italy and registered as operative cars with SRI Prahova. It is very interesting that the name of Paltânea appears in the articles issued by Altphel in Ploiesti as accompanied by the title of manager for the Romanian-Russian Business Center in Bucharest , where he landed after leaving his position in SRI Prahova. The business center was founded together with Nova Bank, the late Unirea Bank.

Other Business Activities

Romano Tronci, someone that Massimo Ciancimino trusts, doesn't appear at his moment as owning any company in Romania . We have discovered a foreign partner of Tronci, working for a company registered in Great Britain , and registered in Romania as a shareholder with a domestic insurance company. Tronci's partner is called Marco Montorfano and is a shareholder at the dissolving Insurance Company Stuttgart Allianz Versicherungsgesellschaft”

At the Interview Accompanied by the Lawyer

We have tried to obtain any points of view on the above mentioned. The three brothers are Giuseppe, Sergio and Alberto. The only one responding our invitation was Sergio Pileri, who came to the meeting accompanied by a partner and a lawyer. None of them introduced themselves. Pileri asked us to give him a list of questions to be answered by him in written, because he had previously refused to participate in any discussion, to be taped or recorded, nor to be photographed. We didn't accept his conditions and we asked him to give us a short written account of his business activities in Romania , and afterwards we could have started a discussion based on that. He accepted that. There are almost 20 days since we met, and Pileri didn't call back at all. In a short phone conversation Pileri said he had no time for such discussions and he advised us to be really careful about what we intended to write. He refused to get us in touch with any of his brothers.
The lawyer Lapis declared to the Italian press that the companies, which were investigated at that time, had no connection whatsoever with Ciancimino and that they were clean companies. At his turn, Massimo Ciancimino declared that the money police were looking for belonged to Lapis and had no connection whatsoever with his father.

The Prosecutor's Office Makes No Comments

Simona Rusu is the delegated prosecutor with DIICOT, which investigates Ciancimino case in Romania . Briefly, the Italian prosecutors accuse Ghiron, Lapis and the Cianciminos of association in order to elude the Court's decision to confiscate the wealth of Vito Ciancimino, previously convicted by the Court.

The Operation Property

Bernardo Provenzano, who is on the list of the first most wanted Italian mafia man for ten years now, had another tentative of using Romania for money laundry. In 2002, within the operation PROPERTY, the Italian Office Antimafia put under distraint goods valuing millions of Euros and they began investigating dozens of persons for laundering money from drugs trafficking or from other illegal activities. Many of those activities took place in Romania as well. Through the Romanian-Italian Paul Brener, several Italians connected to Bernardo Provenzano came and founded companies in Romania . They have developed their business in Romania for more than 6 years, without being disturbed by the authorities. The Italians who launched business ventures in Romania were well known as part of criminal organizations or they were directly involved in drugs and fire arms trafficking, or they were simply representing the interests of Bernardo Provenzano and of one of his assistants, Giuseppe Madonia. The members of Casa Nostra were looking forward to setting up a relationship network. Thus, the head of the External Intelligence Service, Gheorghe Fulga, and several politicians from PSD, such as Romulus Ion Moucha and Constantin Nita got in touch with Paul Brener. The Italian investigators acknowledged in vain the Romanian authorities about the members of Casa Nostra meeting in Romania to launch new operations of money laundry without being caught.

Il Consigliere Don Vito

Vito Calogero Ciancimino, former Christian-Democrat mayor of Palermo at the beginning of the ‘70's, had strong connections with Casa Nostra, especially with the legendary mafia heads Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. After Salvatore Riina got arrested at the beginning of the ‘90's, his partner Provenzano landed as the leader of the powerful criminal organization, which had strong roots in the village of Corleone . Ciancimino was the connection with the political and financial world in Sicilia, since the ‘60's. Because of the high positions he held within the local authorities of Palermo , he managed to assign contracts for construction and gas network development to associates of the Casa Nostra. The first evidence to connect Ciancimino to the mafia was found in the ‘70's. Then there were the statements made by other members of Casa Nostra that lead to a long time investigation and to Ciancimino's arrest. Don Vito was convicted to 8 years in prison for criminal association and to confiscation of his wealth. He died in Rome in November 2002 because of a heart attack. At that time he was under arrest at his own house. He never gave any clue in Court on the whereabouts of his fabulous fortune, but the Italian investigators had proofs that his immense wealth had been put to a safe place even before the confiscation of his wealth was decided into Court. The Italian prosecutors discovered that Don Vito's business was taken over by his son Massimo, who used as screen the lawyers Giovanni Lapis and Giorgio Ghiron. Members of several mafia families, collaborators of prosecutors, declare Don Vito to be some sort of Grey Eminence, always staying in the shadow of Provenzano, always advising the latter financially and representing him in the relationships with the political world.

Sofas in Arad

In the document sent by the Italians to the Romanian authorities asking for a commission to be appointed, it is mentioned that apart from his interests in the waste recycling business, Massimo Ciancimino has also connections with a furniture manufacturing company from Arad. Massimo Ciancimino is the Palermo distributor of the furniture Chateau d'AX. All searches related to this case lead to finding documents that show how products of Chateau d'AX are being manufactured and sold in Romania by the company Maxstile from Arad . The shareholders of the company are two Italians, Antonio and Tiziano Colombo. Both of them are business partners with the well known Culita Tarata in the case of the company Tiziano Trading from Roman, Neamt County ,

The Pacetti Connection

Our investigation got out to light several connections of the Cianciminos in Romania with Italians involved in international scandals, accused of relationships with Casa Nostra. We're talking about the Romanian company LFG, owned by Ecorec, controlled by the Pileri brothers, and co-associated with an offshore company from the Barbados Islands . LFG is managed by Franco Pacetti. The activity object is the production of industrial gas. Pacetti has also founded another company in Romania , Cindesol, who tried to take control of the Glina waste park before the Pileri brothers. Moreover, Cindesol is associated with Eco Gold Invest, a sanitation company active in Mangalia.
Cindesol and Pacetti have several things in common. The company is registered at the same address in Barbados as the company CINTEC, where Pacetti is secretary-administrator. The name of Pacetti and CINTEC appeared in several investigative articles in San Salvador . The journalists from “El Diario de Hoy” discovered that behind the business with waste recycling in San Salvador by CINTEC there were Casa Nostra families from Canada and the United States . Alongside Pacetti, the name of Matteo Pasquale was also mentioned, the latter being also associated with Cindesol from Romania and the president of CINTEC in San Salvador . Pacetti's connections through CINTEC lead to persons convicted for drugs traffic and to groups involved in international drugs traffic – the Bonanos from New York and the Cinquinos from Canada.