Police seize contracts from CPL cooperative over probe

(ANSA) - Naples, April 13 - Police in Modena and Rome on Monday seized hundreds of contracts regarding consulting, supply, and subcontracting issued by Italy's leftwing cooperative Gruppo CPL Concordia.
    The operation came as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged bribes paid to obtain public contracts on the Bay of Naples island of Ischia.
    The company's external relations manager, Francesco Simone, told investigators that CPL Concordia used fraudulent consulting contracts and subcontracts assigned to shell companies designed specifically for the purpose of fraud, in order to obtain public works tenders. Simone was arrested on March 30 together with nine other people, including Ischia mayor Giuseppe 'Giosi' Ferrandino, as part of the probe.
    The day after the arrests, Italy's anti-corruption czar, Raffaele Cantone, requested that prosecutors send him the case files.
    "We have officially requested the documents from the Naples prosecutor's office to see whether there are contracts that can be put into the hands of administrators," he said.
    Investigators believe CPL Concordia executives also paid money to members of the Campania mafia, the Camorra, as part of the scam.
    CPL Concordia is a huge former Communist cooperative founded in Modena in 1899 and employing some 1,800 people, with 70 branches worldwide.