Rome finance police have searched the
offices and homes of public officials and companies over a
corruption probe related to calls for tender in the
telecommunications and computer sectors by State-owned
technology company Sogei Spa , the ministries of interior and
security, the State attorney's office in the Italian capital
said on Tuesday.
The companies involved in the search operation included Digital
Value Spa and Olidata Spa.
Overall, 18 people and 14 companies are under investigation on
corruption and auction rigging charges.
Late on Monday, a manager at Sogei was arrested together with an
entrepreneur as part of the investigation coordinated by Rome
State attorneys.
The two men were caught red handed by finance police while
exchanging 15,000 euros and the money was seized by security
officials, investigative sources said.
Finance police said the "corruption system" discovered had
"ramifications both within the ministry of the defence, as well
as in Sogei and finally in the ministry of interior", according
to court documents on the investigation that led to the search
operations carried out on Tuesday.
In wiretapped conversations involving the entrepreneur arrested
Monday together with the director general of Sogei, Paolino
Iorio, "contacts emerged along with meetings" with an official
who was "later identified as an Italian Navy captain",
investigators said.
The first contacts revealed that the captain, who was involved
in a contract, had asked for money and for a person to be hired
by "one of the companies managed by the entrepreneurs" involved
in the probe, according to the State attorney's documents that
led to the operation on Tuesday.
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