2016-07-30
Mafia in Africa 2 exposes the fraudulent business empire of Italian criminal Curio Pintus, who was sentenced to three years in jail in 2001 for laundering drug money for the 'ndrangheta, but remains active as CEO of US “merchant bank”, the Pintus Group.
An intercontinental team of journalists have traced the financier’s dealings with the mafia from the 1990s to his present day operations.
In recent years, Pintus and his criminal associates have courted investors and partners using bogus financial documents and credentials. In 2011, the group attempted to lure Senegal's president and Ministry of Finance into a phoney $200bn development deal. And last year, Pintus became embroiled in a multi-billion dollar UN-sponsored anti-Ebola project for West Africa after being handed a no-bid contract by the Sao Tomé and Principe Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Angelo Antonio Toriello.
The investigation also reveals the hidden players behind a deal that brought Rome's waste management public company, AMA, to Senegal. The multi-million contract between AMA and the Dakara government was never designed to make a profit, but to serve an elite group of businessmen, among them a well-known mafia member.
This investigation was funded through Journalismfund.eu's Connecting Continents programme. It is the follow-up to IRPI's 2015 Mafia in Africa project, funded through Journalismfund.eu's European cross-border programme and created to expose the mafia infiltration of the African continent.
Team members
Supported
grant of €14,500 and a grant of € 4,500, allocated on 7 August and 6 October 2015.ID
CC/2015/001 & CC/2015/039Grant
Tags
MAGAZINE
- Cerroni l’africano: il re della monnezza e gli appalti in Senegal (IT) - L'Espresso (Italy), 5th January 2017
- Le Groupe Pintus, des pieds et des main pour entrer au Sénégal (FR) - Le Nouvel Hebdo (Senegal), 2nd August 2016
ONLINE
- Così l'indagato per riciclaggio ha fregato l'Onu (IT) - L'Espresso (Italy), 27th July 2016
- Brincar com o ébola (PT) - Expresso (Portugal), 9th July 2016
- Enquête – L’Afrique et le Sénégal, cibles du Goupe Pintus - Boory Bana Blog, 4 March 2016
- L’UOMO CHE HA CERCATO DI FREGARE MEZZO MONDO - The Vision, 31 July 2016
- Wie die italienische Mafia den holländischen Blumenhandel nutzt, um Kokain zu schmuggeln - Correctiv.org, 27 March 2017
Documents
Web_NouvelHebdo_N15_02-08_Aout2016.pdf
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