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The Trade Elite from Italy was hit by a fraud used by artificial intelligence generated by the Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto to ask magnates to attach millions to overseas bank accounts to help pay the ransom of the liberation of Italian journalists kidnapped overseas.
Fraud focused on some of the most powerful trade barons in Italy, including Pirelli's chair Marco Tronchetti Provera, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, co -founder Prada Patrizio Bertelli, owner of Tod Diego della Valle, former owner Milan Massimo Moratti and members of billionaire Beretta and Menarin. Families, a person said with knowledge of the investigation.
While many of them were immediately suspected, at least one was convinced to transfer EUR 1 million to overseas bank accounts, after falsely assured it was returned to Italy later for payment. So far, three Milan entrepreneurs have filed formal complaints to the city's prosecutor's office, including the victim of fraud.
Authorities familiar with this case claims that fraud included several rounds of calls of people who act as Crosetto's staff and apparent use of AI to a convincing simulation of Crosetto's voice. The goals have been said that the government of Prime Minister Giorgie Meloni needed help in saving Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.
“The minister's voice was reproduced,” the Ministry of Defense said. “He asked for money to pay ransom for Italian journalists kidnapped in the world.” Fake Crosetto said, “I can't pay the ministry's money, but you get the money back from Italy's banks”. It was a scam. It wasn't true. ”
Investigators said that the calls seemed to come from telephone numbers belonging to employees of the Minister of Defense – who believed it was cloned.
The scammers moved only a few weeks after Meloni's government negotiated a highly profile hostage in which the young Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, Cecilia Sala, was a young Italian journalist exempt From Tehran's notorious prison Evin, in exchange for the return of an Iranian engineer who wanted in the US for a system that provided sophisticated US Drone Technology Iranian revolutionary guardians.
For the first time, Crosetto was the alarm of the “serious fraud” in the social media post last week and said he wanted to raise public awareness so that “no one can take the risk of falling into a trap”.
The Minister said he first discovered fraud after he was contacted by an important entrepreneur who had previously met and who transferred a large amount to the bank account detailed by the false “General Giovanni Montalbano” after he spoke to someone that the entrepreneur was convinced that the entrepreneur was Convisted that the entrepreneur was convinced was Crosetto himself.
Crosetto said he later accepted calls from several other top entrepreneurs who have contacted people who thought they were members of his employees trying to organize the rescue of Italian journalists in the Middle East.
The Bank of Italy warned on Friday that fraudsters incorrectly used their name and logo to promise that the central bank would pay money that wealthy entrepreneurs have invested as contributions to the false rescue system.
“Banca d'Italia is by no means related to any of these applications,” the statement said because it warned people not to respond and report such foreplay to relevant authorities.
The Italian trade elite is not the first to focus on frauds that take care of the wealthy individual who longs for discreet kindness for the government trying to save the hostage.
Ten years ago in France, more than 150 corporate chiefs, heads of state, ambassadors and religious leaders were contacted bold When a man who claims to be the then French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, he asked for millions of euros for the worst government operations, including the liberation of French journalists who were hostages in Syria.
Although most sensed something scary, fraudsters managed to collect $ 85 million, including nearly $ 20 million from the late Aga Khan, the leader of the world's Ismili Muslims. Gilbert Chikli, Franco-Israel, was convicted of several fraud in 2020 and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Another report of Giuliana Ricozzi
