The IHT continued reporting on
The article was pegged to
Journalists, judicial reformers and others weighed in on the problems they face in writing about or researching nefarious activity – beatings with pipes, death threats, phone calls from mobsters and being followed by thugs in black leather jackets. How do they stay safe? In the case of one journalist, two police officers tail him while he works. Another activist takes every chance he can get to speak on television and radio, hoping his high profile will keep him safe. And one opposition politician offered this: “My grandfather used to say that if you’re destined to be kicked by a horse, you’re not going to be kicked by a donkey.”
The same paper offered an editorial on Bulgaria and Romania a few days later:
The thinking was that EU membership would keep them safely out of
What actually happened, as Doreen Carvajal and Stephen Castle have reported in detail in the IHT, was that the prospect of billions in EU subsidies only encouraged the criminals to diversify from smuggling and extortion and to burrow into the political and judicial systems - the better to siphon off EU money.
Carvajal and Castle, of course, haven’t cornered the market on the
Katica Stefinovec and her son Damir were sentenced in
Financial Crisis prompts Bolsters Loan-sharks
From the same Italian business group that brought us the news last year that the mob is the biggest business in
The credit crunch has meant some 180,000 business owners with no access to bank loans have had to turn to mafia lenders instead, stated the report from Italian retailers’ confederation Confesercenti, which urged the government to take action to ease the crisis. The Financial Times reports:
Usury is the fastest-growing business for the Mafia, which has long consolidated its hold over local businesses and politicians, especially in the south, by providing “security” of cash flow and jobs -- at a price.
The Mafia-- in reality diverse criminal groups with different structures, histories and tendencies -- is -estimated to have a turnover of €130bn ($163bn, £109bn), with “commercial” activities accounting for €92bn, or 6 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product.
Confesercenti estimates usury accounts for €15bn of Mafia income. Narcotics are by far the most profitable activity, traded across
The report underscored recent warnings by anti-Mafia prosecutors that criminal gangs were expanding their activities into trade, tourism, the betting industry, restaurants, construction, rubbish disposal and the property and health -sectors. Prosecutors recently told the Financial Times that
The group also outlined the monthly going rates for paying “pizzo,” or protection money, in
In other words, a normal shop in
In all, Confesercenti reckoned that Italian businesses pay €250 million per day in protection money.
Stratfor:
A man was badly wounded in the Russian resort town of
The explosion was the sixth in a line of similar explosions this year in
Sochi is the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and as a result, billions of dollars in improvement and development projects are pouring into the city. Five-star hotels are going up, as are condominiums and other residential buildings, not to mention sports venues. There is major money to be made in the construction sector these days in Sochi and, considering the lagging economy in the rest of Russia due to the financial crisis, Sochi has become that much more attractive to construction companies struggling to stay afloat.
Bulgaria: An International View
Опубликовано: 18 Ноябрь 2008
Because these groups, like any serious organized crime group, are involved in the construction industry, they were gearing up to cash in on the billions of dollars in construction projects moving into Sochi ahead of the Olympics. But these plans were dashed when Moscow Mayor and alleged mob kingpin Yuri Luzhkov began buying up property in
Even under normal economic circumstances, Luzhkov and his wife would be naturally attracted to the opportunities in
The local groups, the article goes on to say, are dTisgruntled that Luzhkov and the
Mafia Retreat Now High-end Restaurant
A villa on three acres of Sicilian mountainside once owned by mobster Salvatore “The Beast” Riina has re-opened to the public as an “agritourismo” country house hotel that specializes in Sicilian food.
Cybercrime arrests up this year
Now some good news on the $200 billion annual cybercrime market from the FBI and the Secret Service. It’s been a good year for arrests, reports USA Today:
Secret Service and FBI operations since January have broken up a huge forum for stolen credit cards and shut down the world's largest spam ring. Investigations have led to indictments of other high-profile spammers and 11 people allegedly behind the computer break-in at TJX and other major retailers.
What has gone right, according to the paper, is that the Secret Service has trained 1,000 more operatives in the work required working closely with their counterparts abroad (the article’s sidebar is an interview with the Romanian prosecutor general) and tougher laws. The wave of arrests is also good timing, as most security experts note that fraud spikes during economic downturns.