Latest news with #GuardiaDiFinanza
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Italian officials to face trial over deadly Cutro migrant shipwreck
ROME, July 21 (Reuters) - An Italian judge on Monday ordered six police and coastguard officers to stand trial for mishandling operations during a migrant shipwreck that killed more than 90 people near the town of Cutro in 2023, media reports said. The migrant accident, one of the deadliest in Italy's history, involved a wooden sailboat that set out from Turkey and smashed apart on rocks within sight of a beach near the shore of the southern Calabria region. The officials -- two from the coastguard and four from the Guardia di Finanza police force -- have been charged with multiple manslaughter related to negligence that may have contributed to the shipwreck, according to Ansa news agency. Under Italian law, prosecutors have to ask a judge whether to call a formal trial for the suspects after wrapping up their probe. Ansa said the trial is due to start in January. The decision to order the trial against the six suspects triggered an angry reaction from Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant League party and deputy prime minister in the right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni. "A single word: SHAME. To put on trial six officials who risk their lives every day to save others. SHAME," Salvini wrote on his account on X. Late last year, in a separate trial connected to the Cutro case, three people were convicted of aiding and abetting illegal immigration causing the death of the migrants and were sentenced to up to 16 years in jail.
WIRED
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Italian YouTuber Faces Jail Time for Showing Android Handhelds With Emulated Games
Ryan Whitwam, Ars Technica The games on the devices shown by the content creator may not be entirely legal. That was enough for Italian law enforcement to ding him for 'promotion of pirated copyrighted materials.' Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Photograph:There are countless Android-powered gaming handhelds, but they go beyond the usual slate of Android games by offering console emulation support. The problem is the game ROMs on these devices, which are not entirely legal. Italian YouTuber Once Were Nerd is learning how seriously some rights holders are taking game piracy after agents from the country's Guardia di Finanza showed up to confiscate his consoles. He now says the investigation could lead to criminal charges and the end of his channel. Once Were Nerd has produced YouTube content covering a plethora of gaming topics, including Android-based handheld game machines from the likes of Powkiddy and TrimUI. These devices usually run an older version of Android that has been heavily modified for gaming, featuring built-in emulation support for retro consoles like SNES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, and more. They've become quite popular as the cost of mobile hardware has come down, making it possible to buy what is essentially an updated PSP or Game Boy Advance for $100 or less. Recently, Once Were Nerd attracted the attention of Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance, which is tasked with policing copyright in the country. In the video first spotted by Android Authority (which has an AI-generated English language track), the YouTuber explains that Guardia di Finanza appeared at his door in April with a search warrant. Agents accused the creator of promoting pirated copyrighted materials stemming from his coverage of Anbernic handheld game consoles. While emulation software is not illegal, a surprising number of these devices ship chock-full of preloaded ROMs—the channel showed multiple Sony and Nintendo games running on the device. Once Were Nerd is far from the only channel posting about these devices, though. Officials seized more than 30 handheld consoles and demanded copies of Once Were Nerd's correspondence with the companies making these devices. Once Were Nerd says he has cooperated fully with investigators and contends that he has done nothing wrong. Legal Gray Area The firms making these handhelds all operate out of China, which is beyond the reach of Western copyright law. They still sell the devices internationally, sticking to vague language about the inclusion of game ROMs. For example, Anbernic offers bundles with microSD cards marked as "compatible 7000+ games." That makes this approach to revisiting retro games a legal gray area at the very least. Authorities believe Once Were Nerd's activities may still run afoul of Article 171 in Italy's copyright law, which allows for up to three years imprisonment for violations. It is unclear who made the original complaint against the channel. Once Were Nerd has seen documents that cite copyrighted material from Nintendo and Sony, but Guardia di Finanza doesn't need to reveal that detail until the preliminary investigation is finished, and cases can be brought by the agency itself. (Nintendo, for one, is particularly litigious when it comes to defending its intellectual property.) When the investigation is complete, the government will either file charges or dismiss the case. Current law also gives officials the power to shut down the Once Were Nerd channel while the investigation is ongoing. Italy has a history of heavy-handed copyright enforcement—the country's internet regulator recently demanded that Google poison DNS to block illegal streams of soccer. So it's not hard to believe investigators would pursue a case against someone who posts videos featuring pirated games on YouTube. This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
Reuters
26-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Italy seizes $164 million from businessmen allegedly tied to 'Ndrangheta mafia
MILAN, June 26 (Reuters) - An Italian court has confiscated assets in Italy and Germany worth over 140 million euros ($164 million) from five men active in the oil distribution industry who are accused of tax fraud and links to the 'Ndrangheta, tax police said on Thursday. Guardia di Finanza police (Gdf) in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said the five Italian businessmen allegedly "managed the entire distribution chain of oil products from the warehouse to the final roadside retailers, interposing several companies with the aim of systematically evading taxes." The unnamed five are alleged to have links with, and in some cases to be members of, 'Ndrangheta clans, with the task of laundering the profits from criminal activities through their business activities, the Gdf said in a statement. As a result, a court in Reggio Calabria seized 79 properties and 85 vehicles in various parts of Italy, 28 wholesale petroleum product companies, three of which are based in Germany, a farm and a real estate company plus four luxury watches and a million euros in cash. The total estimated value of the seized assets exceeds 140 million euros. Originally from the poor southern region of Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta has evolved into Italy's most powerful mafia organisation, and has spread across Europe and the rest of the world, penetrating into so-called white-collar crime. The national anti-mafia agency (DIA) said last month in its annual report that Italy's mafia is turning away from violent turf wars to collaborate in drug trafficking, prostitution rings and money laundering. ($1 = 0.8536 euros)
