Italy seizes Bulgari’s assets in tax inquiry

ROME - Agence France-Presse

Italian police has seized assets worth 46 million euros owned by Bulgari.

Italian financial police said that they have sequestered assets worth 46 million euros ($60 million) owned by executives at luxury group Bulgari accused of tax evasion.

The action concerned bank accounts, insurance policies, shareholdings and real estate, a police statement said on March 14.

The assets belong to Bulgari brothers Paolo and Nicola, along with the group’s financial head Maurizio Valentini and acting chief executive Francesco Trapani, who is also head of the watches and jewelry division at LVMH, the French luxury group that bought Bulgari in 2011.

The four have been accused of avoiding Italian taxes via fraudulent declarations of around three billion euros in sales through companies based in the Netherlands and Ireland. Funds involved were also allegedly transferred through companies controlled in Switzerland. Bulgari insisted in a statement later on March 14 that the foreign units in question held a “quite real and strategic importance” to Bulgari.