Finance police on Tuesday
arrested five people including a relative of fugitive Cosa
Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro in their so-called 'Bloody
Money' operation into the alleged re-routing of dialysis
patients from public to private facilities.
Francesco Messina Denaro, 55, known as Gianfranco Messina,
is the Sicily buyer for Diaverum Italia Srl, a Milan-area
company that manages dialysis centers across Europe.
His grandfather Francesco was brother to the fugitive boss'
grandfather Salvatore, prosecutors said.
The other suspects are medical businessmen and hospital
managers. Former Diaverum executive Gianpaolo Barone Lumaga, who
was CEO until February this year, is under investigation.
The operation has so far uncovered evidence that 40
patients were deviated to private facilities, but investigators
believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.
A year of dialysis costs 40,000 euros, prosecutors said.
"Officials in public facilities... tried outright to reduce
the flow of patients to the clinics under their care and to
deviate it towards private companies, in whose management they
held direct or indirect interests," Catania Prosecutor Carmelo
Zuccaro told reporters at a news conference.
"They did so with utter unscrupulousness, considering the
patient... a subject on whose health they could turn a profit".
The damage wrought "against the image and efficiency of the
national health service is enormous - the damage wrought to
competitiveness in the private sector is just as serious,"
Zuccaro said.
Parent company Diaverum operates in 20 countries, employs
9,000 people, has 29,000 patients in its care and business
volume of over 580 million euros.
Messina Denaro, 53, has not been publicly seen in more
than 20 years. An informant in 2014 helped Italian authorities
update their ideas of the Mafia boss's appearance, including
the fact he no longer wears eyeglasses and his dark hair has
receded.
The Cosa Nostra No. 1, whose home fief is in Agrigento, has
been a fugitive since 1993 and according to Interpol he is among
the 10 most wanted criminals in the world.
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