Antonio Castelli is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

financial figure who, according to legal and regulatory filings, as well as major media outlets, has been convicted of major

financial crimes Financial crime is crime committed against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property (belonging to one person) to one's own personal use and benefit. Financial crimes may involve fraud (cheque fraud, credit card frau ...

. His name appears on the Falciani List, alleged committers of

tax fraud Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

Criminal investigation for money laundering

In 2009, Castelli’s firm, Inprogramme, tried to transfer a

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

worth a $1 billion, but was immediately subject to criminal investigation. The company had only been formed the day before and then with only a few dollars of capital, from two subscribers.

Connection to $6 billion Qatar fraud judgment

Castelli defended the attempted bond transfer as arising from his partnership with a

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

of the Qatar Royal family, specifically Sheikh Fahd bin Ahmad bin Mohamed bin Thani Al-Thani. This Sheikh was in turn identified by his full name, in court filings (testimony of prosecutor Stefano Civati), and the major paper of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

. Furthermore, Sheikh Fahd bin Ahmad bin Mohamed bin Thani Al-Thani is cited in an Inprogramme prospectus as a Director of its

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

corporation. That firm, in turn, owns the bank account where the Swifthold bond was sent as part of the agreement between Fast Trading Group and Swifthold, which is central in the $6 billion High Court Award against the Sheikh for his fraud against Swifthold, a family’s charitable trust based in Spain, in 2011. Furthermore, Abdulsalam Al-Hamri, the appointed CEO of Fast Trading Group, was a director of this Inprogramme entity. In the

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

enforcement effort on this judgment, Castelli is cited as a partner of the Sheikh.

Market manipulation

In September 2010, Castelli, along with his collaborators, were fined €450,000 by CONSOB, the Italian

financial regulator Financial regulation is a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system. This may be handled ...

, for

market manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation is a type of market abuse where there is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operation of the market; the most blatant of cases involve creating false or misleading appearances ...

between February 19, 2007 and May 30, 2007. The order specifically references that Castelli was operating through their company, InProgramme SAS.

Ponzi scheme

In 2012, Castelli was charged with defrauding 600 northern Italian investors of some €20 million, earning him the label “The Madoff of Turin.” This was undertaken likewise through Inprogamme.

Insurance fraud

From 2009 to 2011, Antonio Castelli, through United Consulting Finance Societa Finanziaria SPA, issued at least 5,875 fraudulent

insurance policies In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial payment, known as ...

. The aggregate value of the policies was approximately €465 million. Among the purchasers of the fraudulent policies were government entities, commercial entities, and private individuals. The scam involved underwriting insurance policies, collecting the premiums, and then failing to honor any policies when the policyholders attempted to collect their payouts. Additionally, in 2012, it appears that United Consulting Finance was fined €386,640 for various failures to file proper documentation with the Italian regulators. A 2014 article clearly links Castelli to Inprogramme and the frauds cited above.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castelli, Antonio Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Italian financial businesspeople Italian white-collar criminals