Risk of criminal infiltration with COVID-19 crisis says Bank of Italy

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 1 - There is a heightened risk of criminal infiltration of the Italian economy due to the "huge" cash injections needed to combat the coronavirus crisis, the Bank of Italy's information unit UIF said Wednesday.
    UIF chief Claudio Clemente said Italy's anti-money laundering system would be increasingly called on to ward off such risks.
    He said there have been, and will continue to be, suspect transactions linked to the COVID emergency, with a greater risk of exposure to usury and loan sharking.
    Clement said controls on the use of cash should be boosted during the crisis.
    "In the current phase of emergency," he said, "the cash safeguard must be boosted in order to better intercept the improper use of the immense liquidity available to criminality, as conformed by recent poice operations". (ANSA).