The Attianese brothers – Pasquale and Daniele Mara – co-owners of the well-known tomato canning company in Nocera Inferiore (Salerno, Italy) have been subjected to personal precautionary measures for caporalato and bribery of an ICQRF official, as well as for the tomato origin fraud unmasked in late May 2021.
Attianese, the RAC blitz
On 8.3.22, Carabinieri from the RAC (Agribusiness Protection Department) executed a GIP order of house arrest for Pasquale Attianese and a ban on residence for his brother Daniele Mara.
The operation descends from investigative activities that had led to the seizure of 800 tons of Egyptian tomatoes contaminated with pesticides and sold as Italian. A giant fraud we had reported in advance.
Corruption at the ICQRF in Salerno.
Investigators worked hard, with ‘theexaminations of informants, the acquisition and analysis of telephone traffic records, observation services, searches, wiretaps, and bank checks.’ And so they discovered the corruption of Vittorio De Rosa, head of the Central Inspectorate for Quality Protection and Fraud Repression (ICQRF) in Salerno.
The man allegedly shielded Attianese from scrutiny. ‘Specifically, the entrepreneurs, repeatedly since 2018, received from the aforementioned D.R.V. information in connection with investigative activities aimed at finding the wholesomeness of canning products marketed on a large scale in multiple foreign states by the S.p.a. under investigation, agreeing in consideration to hire for the daughter of the aforementioned – with disbursements of related economic benefits – and the same official D.R.V., to be accomplished upon his retirement‘.
The trick worked for a while, but the carabinieri circumvented it, leading to the 2021 seizure.
Corporalism and worker exploitation
Further crime established by the RAC against the Attianese brothers, in conjunction with an employee (D.M.), is illicit intermediation and exploitation of labor, better known as caporalato.
‘By harassing conduct,theyemployed workers in exploitative conditions, instilling a strong fear in them in relation to their vulnerable condition,’ the RAC reports.
43-hour shifts
The military determined that Attianese was harassing workers with starvation wages (4.35 euros/hour) and grueling shifts, up to 43 consecutive hours.
Workers were also supervised with video surveillance. Even bathroom time was monitored. ‘If deemed excessive, it led to pay deduction up to and including cancellation of payment for the entire workday.’
One million euros seized
In addition to the precautionary measures, a seizure of 979,803.86 euros was made as the profit of the crime. The Salerno INPS also raised administrative fines of more than 275,000 euros.
The question remains as to whether the multiplicity of crimes charged against individuals belonging to a stable organization may not constitute the crime of association, and more importantly, why the enterprise is not being commissioned.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
