More than 9,000 cited over 'citizenship wage' fraud ring

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 11 - Finance police based in the northern cities of Cremona and Novara have reported over 9,000 people to prosecutors in relation to a ring that allegedly illegally obtained public money, above all via fraudulent claims for the 'citizenship wage' minimum-income benefit.
    The police also arrested 16 people and took them to jail for allegedly belonging to the criminal association at the centre of the ring.
    They searched the properties of suspects in the provinces of Cremona, Lodi, Brescia, Pavia, Milan, Andria, Barletta and Agrigento.
    The gang managed to make illegal claims for "over 20 million euros," the finance police said.
    The operation to break up the ring put an end to fraud that could have cost the State over 60 million euros, they said.
    The group, whose alleged ringleaders are Romanian nationals, allegedly pressed the owners of several CAF tax-and-social-security-assistance centres to be complicit in the fraud.
    The government is currently tightening the rules for the citizenship-wage benefit to make it less susceptible to abuse.
    (ANSA).