The scam plotted against Vincent Candela was not the first for the 50-year-old Roman lawyer Marco Landolfi, on which a request for indictment is pending for having convinced the former Roma footballer to pay off the house mortgage in a single transaction of 500 thousand euros in 2021, presenting himself as a financial intermediary for Deutsche Bank and taking possession of the money, without however having Never had anything to do with the bank. Landolfi now finds himself in court, still as a defendant, for another matter. Between 2017 and 2021, he allegedly passed himself off as an attorney for Cerved, Unicredit and Italfondiario. And, together with eight other people, who pretended to be financial intermediaries, he ended up on trial on charges of fraud, counterfeiting of distinctive signs and abusive financial activity against numerous investors convinced to sign mortgage credit transfer contracts at advantageous prices . All unsuspecting victims who would then make transfers totaling over 9 million euros directly to the current accounts in his name.
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THE STORY
If in April 2023 the preliminary investigations conducted by the deputy prosecutor Vincenzo Barba into the fraud proceedings against the former French Giallorossi defender – represented by the lawyer Valerio Galassetti – were concluded, for which the prosecutor then requested the indictment, at the moment Landolfi – defended by the lawyer Nicola Madia – is one of the nine defendants accused by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office of having induced around 50 people, residing in Rome, Milan, Emilia Romagna and Friuli Venezia Giulia, to conclude a hundreds of mortgage credit transfer contracts at particularly competitive prices, abusively using company logos on the documentation submitted to “customers”. But, according to what was reconstructed by prosecutor Barba (who is also in charge of this proceeding), these credits would never have existed. In fact, thanks also to a convincing “word of mouth” activity, the victims, attracted by the advantageous deal, would in fact have made numerous transfers worth tens of thousands of euros each, «equal to the amount of the credit transfers which was paid directly on the current accounts held in the name of Landolfi (or attributable to them), with the corresponding damage as – we read in the indictment – falsely authorized to collect on behalf of the companies of the Cerved group, Italfondiario (defended by the lawyer Bruno Andò, ed.) and the Unicredit bank”.
CHEATED CUSTOMERS
To reassure customers that they had entrusted their money in safe hands, the eight financial intermediaries – who ended up on trial – also told them to wait a little while to see the first fruits. But, as the weeks went by, the 55-year-old lawyer actually began to reduce contact and make excuses to try to justify himself. Until it was too late to turn back.
Despite the numerous complaints filed in various parts of Italy, it seems that in the meantime some defrauded customers have been partially reimbursed and have therefore withdrawn them, although the majority of them – who have filed civil proceedings to try to recover a portion of the sums – have had to give up their life savings forever, which were permanently lost in these phantom investments.
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