Spy gang danger to democracy,Mattarella email cloned

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 27 - An alleged computer snooping gang allegedly led by former supercop Carmine Gallo and Milan Fair Foundation President Enrico Pazzali that got confidential information on mostly business, but also some political and showbiz figures, was a "danger to democracy", the Milanese prosecutor leading the probe said after it emerged they had cloned President Sergio Mattarella's email account Sunday.
    "It is not an exaggeration to say that these are individuals who represent a danger to the democracy of this country", said the prosecutor, Francesco De Tommasi, in investigation documents.
    The prosecutor spoke of "extremely dangerous individuals because, through the activities of illegal dossier-making" with "the creation of actual prohibited parallel databases and with the indiscriminate circulation of sensitive, confidential and secret information, they are able to 'keep citizens and institutions in their grip'" and "influence" "business dynamics and public procedures, including judicial ones".
    Among those whose confidential information was allegedly harvested were Paolo Scaroni, former CEO of energy giant Eni and president of soccer club AC Milan, Giovanni Gorno Tempini, number one of government investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), and the prominent banker Massimo Ponzellini.
    Also targeted were Italy's second highest institutional figure after Mattarella, Senate Speaker Ignazio la Russa, his son Geronimo, one of Italy's top lawyers, former Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti, and Roman singer-songwriter Alex Britti, police said.
    The expert allegedly used by Gallo and Pazzali said in a police wiretap he had 800,000 pieces of confidential data on his hard disk.
    Nunzio Samuele Calamucci allegedly had "at his disposal a hard disk containing eight hundred thousand SDIs", i.e. information acquired from the police force database, prosecutors said.
    In another conversation in November 2023, Calamucci allegedly said he had transferred data from "six, seven million USB sticks that I have".
    He had a "huge amount of data to manage - the prosecutors wrote - equal to at least 15 terabytes", according to the documents of the investigation by the Milan DDA anti-mafia and anti-terror prosecutors.
    Calamucci was wiretapped as saying "here's how we screw the whole of Italy" in the case.
    One of the sons of late Luxottica boss Leonardo Del Vecchio, Leonardo Maria, has been placed under investigation in the Milanese mafia probe.
    Banker Matteo Arpe is also among the 60 people probed in the case, which on Friday led to the arrests of six people.
    Former 'super policeman' Gallo, who made his name with the Gucci 'Black Widow' case and high-profile business kidnappings, was placed under house arrest in the probe.
    Gallo was wiretapped saying he had made thousands of reports for Pazzali.
    Those under investigation are accused of complicity in the illegal access of the alleged organization, composed of hackers, IT consultants and members of the police force and also centered on illegal wiretapping.
    The investigation also involves former employees of an investigation company, SKP of Milan.
    National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said the case had revealed a "gigantic and alarming" market for confidential data.
    Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said hackers are increasingly ahead of the police and laws must be aligned and brought up to speed in order to better combat them.
    Artificial Intelligence brings a greater risk of data manipulation, Nordio added.
    Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the alleged snoopers posed "an unacceptable threat to democracy" while Premier Giorgia Meloni made some remarks on her and her sister Arianna's involvement in another recent snooping case in the latest book by veteran journalist Bruno Vespa, saying no state governed by the rule of law can tolerate illegal dossier gathering.
    "The investigations say that the dossier on me began at the end of the Draghi government when it was clear that I could have gone to government," she says, referring to the recent case involving a rogue bank employee.
    "On the issue of the dossiers, I expect the judiciary to get to the bottom of it, because, in the best case scenario, at the basis of this work there was a system of blackmail and extortion, but in the worst case scenario we are faced with the crime of subversion. No rule of law can tolerate something like this".
    The State attorney's office in the Puglia city of Bari is investigating a former employee of Intesa Sanpaolo bank, Italy's biggest financial institute, who allegedly "illicitly" accessed nearly 7,000 times the bank accounts of VIP clients including Meloni, her former partner, journalist Andrea Giambruno, Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, Meloni's sister Arianna, head of the secretariat of her rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè ,National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, members of the military, and top footballers and entertainment figures.
    Meloni also says in Vespa's new book excerpted Sunday that hitting her sister Arianna is like hitting herself.
    "When this news came out, my sister sent me a photo of her bank account statement. There were 2,100 euros. She wrote to me: 'If they had asked me, I would have told you how much I had in the account', with a smiley face," the premier says in veteran star Rai journalist Vespa's book, Hitler and Mussolini. The fatal idyll that shocked Europe and Italy's central role in the new Europe.
    Meloni goes on: "I think they are targeting Arianna because she doesn't have the protections that I can have, but hitting her is like hitting me.
    "Unfortunately for them, they are dealing with another person who has no skeletons in the closet". (ANSA).