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U.S. seeks $110 mln in Italian corruption proceeds
MIAMI (Reuters) - To help Italy, the U.S. Justice Department is trying to seize $110 million that it says was allegedly laundered through U.S. bank accounts and came from court awards won after an Italian businessman bribed Italian judges, officials said on Monday.
The claim, filed on Thursday in a federal court in Miami, said the money laundering allegations stemmed from a corruption case involving the late Italian businessman Angelo "Nino" Rovelli and his chemical company, SIR-Rumianca, against Istituto Mobiliare Italiano, or IMI, an Italian bank.
Italy asked U.S. authorities to help with its investigation, the Justice Department said.
U.S. authorities in Florida, New York, New Jersey and California won court orders in April freezing $110 million held in investment and bank accounts. The identities of the accountholders was not disclosed.
From 1998 to 2007, U.S. officials said, a Rovelli family financial adviser and other people conspired to launder through U.S. banks and investment accounts a significant portion of $400 million in "tainted funds" the family netted in 1994 as a result of the corruption scheme.
According to a U.S. Justice Department statement, Rovelli paid bribes to Italian federal judges to influence civil litigation he initiated against IMI over the bank's refusal to assist in a financial bailout of SIR-Rumianca.
Due to the bribes, SIR won the lawsuit but Nino Rovelli died before the verdicts were issued, and his heirs received the $400 million, the statement said.
After the bribery scandal broke in 1996, family adviser Pierfrancesco Munari "helped the Rovelli family set up structures to conceal large parts of the $400 million in public corruption proceeds that IMI paid to the Rovelli heirs," the statement said.
The Justice Department said Munari and Nino Rovelli's son Oscar were arrested by Italian authorities in January on money laundering charges, and two other Rovelli heirs were later charged with similar offenses.
If the court orders the money forfeited, the United States will seek to return it to victims who filed petitions.
