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 is the follow-up to IRPI's 2015 Mafia in Africa project created to expose the mafia infiltration of the African continent.
