Italian Anti-Mafia Police Seize €1.3 Billion from the King of Alternative Energy

At the end of February I wrote an article about the Mafia’s move into the renewable energy sector; encouraged by the generous subsidies and the legal front that it can offer the family.

I mentioned that in 2010 the Italian police had seized assets and property from the Vito ‘The Lord of Wind’ Nicastri. I apologise, but this it appears was wrong. At that time they had in fact only frozen his assets; now they have fully seized them.

In an operation by the Italian anti-Mafia investigators, the largest amount ever, a total of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in cash and property, was seized from Vito, who is believed to have close ties to the Mafia, including Matteo Messina Denaro, the Sicilian Mafia godfather. The police made the seizure based on the accusations that he had only declared a small fraction of his businesses to the tax authorities. It seems even the Mafia cannot outrun the taxman.

Related article: Has Belgium Cracked the Problem of Storing Wind Power Electricity?

The seizure included: 43 companies, 98 pieces of real estate, 66 bank accounts, credit cards, and investment funds.

Vito Nicastri, a 57 year old native of Alcamo, in the province of Trapani, Sicily, has been placed under surveillance and told he must not leave his home city for three years.

By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com