Carabinieri police in Milan and Monza on Friday seized 2.5 million euros worth of assets from Maria Paola Canegrati, a leading dentistry entrepreneur in the Lombardy region who has been sentenced to four years and two months in prison for corrupting public officials to win major public contracts for the local hospital of Desio and Vimercate.
Monza prosecutors ordered the seizure of the assets from Canegrati, her accountant in Bergamo as well as two companies operating in the dentistry sector of which she was sole administrator after further investigations carried out since the entrepreneur's arrest in February.
The probe revealed, according to investigators, that Canegrati had fraudulently declared nonexistent operations, stating she had performed more medical services to get money from the regional healthcare service and had used the companies' credit cards for personal use.
The probe that has led to the arrest, among others, of Canegrati and a Northern League Lombardy regional councilor who chaired the regional health commission, Fabio Rizzi, concerns a series of public contacts for the outsourcing of hospital dentistry services estimated to be worth over 400 million euros.
The contracts were won illegally by a group of entrepreneurs headed by the businesswoman with the complicity of public officials, according to investigators.
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