Italian entrepreneur convicted of ten‑year pension fraud

A 50‑year‑old businessman from Treviso, Italy, kept receiving his mother’s pension for more than a decade after her death in 2016. The monthly payments, amounting to over €230,000, were deposited into a joint bank account that the son never reported as belonging to a deceased beneficiary.

Investigators from the Guardia di Finanza, working with the INPS, uncovered the fraud while reviewing suspicious account activity. The son used the illicit funds to finance a sports‑wear retail company and to pay its suppliers, leading to charges of embezzlement and auto‑recycling (money‑laundering). The INPS suspended the payments and recovered €18,000 still in the account. A preventive seizure of the assets, including the company, has been ordered as the case proceeds through the courts.