Italy police arrest 4 over alleged unlawful database entry, supply says

(This Oct. 26 story has been corrected to point out Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is being investigated and isn’t underneath home arrest and deletes sentence with allegation particulars in paragraphs 1 and 5)

By Emilio Parodi

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian police have positioned 4 individuals underneath home arrest as a part of a probe into alleged unlawful entry to state databases, and are investigating dozens, together with Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, son of the late billionaire founding father of Luxottica, a supply mentioned on Saturday.

A lawyer for Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio mentioned he was “eagerly awaiting the completion of preliminary investigations to have the ability to show he has nothing to do with the occasions in query and that costs laid towards him don’t have any foundation.

“He appears to be relatively a sufferer given preliminary allegations and the unfavourable end result of the search performed,” lawyer Maria Emanuela Mascalchi mentioned in a press release.

The alleged database entry was carried out by a personal intelligence enterprise run by a former policeman, an individual with direct information of the matter instructed Reuters.

Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio is the son of Leonardo Del Vecchio, who based Ray Ban-owner Luxottica. The tycoon died in 2022.

The unlawful entry to confidential information, which was allegedly bought to prospects or used to blackmail businessmen and politicians, went again to at the very least 2019 and continued as much as March 2024, a court docket doc seen by Reuters confirmed.

Milan prosecutors allege the enterprise intelligence company tapped into three key databases: one gathering alerts over suspicious monetary actions; one utilized by the nationwide tax company with residents’ financial institution transactions, utility payments, revenue statements; and the police investigations’ database, the individual mentioned.

Italy’s nationwide anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo instructed reporters on Saturday the probe “rang alarm bells” as a result of it make clear the “gigantic marketplace for confidential data” which has acquired “a business-like dimension”, ANSA information company reported.

The probe follows one other latest investigation right into a large-scale information breach at Italy’s high financial institution Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:ISNPY).

(This story has been refiled to take away an image)