Giulia Berlusconi
Organized Crime Infiltration of Legitimate Businesses in Europe
A Pilot Project in Five European Countries
This research is an exploratory study on the infiltration of organised crime groups (OCGs) in legal businesses. Infiltration occurs in every case in which a natural person belonging to a criminal organisation or acting on its behalf, or an already infiltrated legal person, invests financial and/or human resources to participate in the decision-making process of a legitimate business.
The main output of the research is a list of risk factors of OCG infiltration in legal businesses, i.e. factors that facilitate or promote infiltration. Risk factors are derived from an unprecedented cross-national comparative analysis of the vulnerabilities of territories and business sectors, criminal groups’ modi operandi, and the characteristics of infiltrated businesses.
Infiltration risk factors provide inputs for the development of a risk assessment model of OCG infiltration. Its development will assist Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in identifying the factors facilitating and/or promoting infiltration and enhancing the prevention and enforcement of criminal infiltration. This will help protect EU MS legitimate economies from the misuse of legal businesses for illicit purposes.
Project ARIEL – Assessing the Risk of the Infiltration of Organised Crime in EU MSs Legitimate Economies: a Pilot Project in 5 EU Countries (www.arielproject.eu) – was carried out with the financial support of the European Commission, DG Home Affairs, within the Prevention of and Fight against Crime (ISEC) Programme. It focused on five EU MS: Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and United Kingdom.