Refleksi: Apakah polisi NKRI berani bertindak menyita harta kekayaan haram koruptor seperti apa yang dilakukan polisi Italia?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25825558-2703,00.html Life not so sweet as mafia cafe seized July 24, 2009 Article from: The Australian ITALIAN authorities yesterday seized Rome's Cafe de Paris, symbol of the 1950s lifestyle captured in the film La Dolce Vita, from a powerful southern crime syndicate, a leading anti-mafia prosecutor said. "Rome is one of the places where criminal clans and big international traffickers grow by infiltrating the economy by laundering illicit profits," Pietro Grasso said. The cafe, on Rome's upmarket Via Veneto close to the US embassy, was seized along with nine other eating or drinking establishments and other assets in the Italian capital worth E200million ($348.4m), he said. The property belonged to the Alvaro clan of the 'Ndrangheta mafia based in the southern Calabria region, which made the investments using money raised through arms and drugs trafficking, Mr Grasso said. A feud between clans of the 'Ndrangheta, the most powerful and violent of Italy's crime syndicates, was behind the 2007 shooting of six men in Duisburg, western Germany. Items seized included businesses, apartments and luxury cars, Mr Grasso added. The Cafe de Paris, valued at E55m, was allowed to reopen its doors yesterday even while a search continued. The restaurant was a favourite haunt of cinema stars such as Frank Sinatra and La Dolce Vita director Federico Fellini, as well as Italian intellectuals. The seizure took place as the governor of the Bank of Italy warned that Italian businesses were less able to resist pressure from the mafia because of the financial crisis. "Businesses are seeing their cash takings diminishing and the value of their holdings plummeting. It is therefore a lot easier for criminal organisations to target these businesses," Mario Draghi told a parliamentary commission into the prevention of money-laundering. He said the mafia was putting pressure on businesses through loans at extortionate rates that allowed them to launder cash. Mr Draghi said criminal organisations were among the obstacles curbing the rate of growth and preventing the economy from bouncing back. The fight against laundering must be "even more determined" during the financial crisis, he said. AFP [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
