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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Wednesday, 11 Jan 2012 11:09 AM
Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the
economic crisis, making the Mafia the country's biggest "bank" and squeezing
the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report.
Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a "national emergency,"
said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa.
Organized crime now generated annual turnover of about 140 billion euros ($
178.89 billion) and profits of more than 100 billion euros, it added.
"With 65 billion euros in liquidity, the Mafia is Italy's number one bank,"
said a statement from the group, which was set up in Palermo a decade ago to
oppose extortion rackets against small business.
Organized crime groups like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Naples Camorra or
the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta have long had a stranglehold on the Italian
economy, generating profits equivalent to about 7 percent of national output.
Extortionate lending had become an increasingly sophisticated and lucrative
source of income, alongside drug trafficking, arms smuggling, prostitution,
gambling and racketeering, the report said.
"The classic neighborhood or street loan shark is on the way out, giving way
to organized loan-sharking that is well connected with professional circles
and operates with the connivance of high-level professionals," the report
said.
It estimated about 200,000 businesses were tied to extortionate lenders and
tens of thousands of jobs had been lost as a result.
EXTORTION WITH A CLEAN FACE
Old style gangsters handing out cash in bars and pool halls had been
replaced by apparently respectable bankers, lawyers or notaries, the report
said.
"This is extortion with a clean face," it added. "Through their professions,
they know the mechanisms of the legal credit market and they often know the
financial position of their victims perfectly."
Small businesses, who have struggled to get hold of credit during the
economic slowdown, may have been increasingly tempted to turn to the mafia,
said the report.
Typical victims of extortionate lending were middle-aged shopkeepers and
small businessmen who would struggle to find a new job and who were ready to
try anything to avoid bankruptcy, it added.
"They are usually people in traditional retail sectors like food,
greengrocers, clothes or shoe shops, florists or furniture shops. These are
the categories which, more than any other, are paying the price of the (
economic) crisis," it said.
According to a separate report this week from small business association CNA
, 56 percent of companies had seen banks tighten their lending requirements
in the past three months. |
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