Six defendants have been sentenced to prison in Milan in the Moby Dick investigation into a VAT fraud network linked to the mafia. EPPO announced the convictions on 17 September, saying the court had also ordered confiscation of more than €300 million. The judgment was issued at first instance and can still be appealed.
The sentences were handed down on 11 September and range from four years to seven years and two months. All six defendants chose the abbreviated procedure, which reduced their sentences by one third. The convictions concern organising or participating in a transnational criminal association, VAT fraud and money laundering, according to EPPO’s account of the decision.
The court confirmed aggravating circumstances involving assistance to a mafia association and the use of mafia methods. One defendant was found responsible for receiving money from a Camorra clan and investing it in the criminal network. EPPO said the arrangement generated profits for the network while also providing a route for laundering the mafia’s existing proceeds.
The wider Moby Dick case concerns a VAT carousel that caused €520 million in losses to European and national budgets. Between 2020 and 2023, the network issued invoices totalling more than €1.3 billion for sales of AirPods, laptops and other electronics. The invoice total measures recorded trading activity; it is separate from the estimate of tax losses and the value of the confiscation order.
Among the six defendants was a person described as one of the network’s leaders. He had avoided arrest in Prague in November 2024 and remained at large for six months before surrendering in May 2025. EPPO said he had remained subject to judicial restrictions since then. The September convictions follow earlier judgments in the investigation announced in February.
The decision included penalties beyond imprisonment. Some defendants were permanently barred from holding public office, while others received five-year bans. One was also disqualified from operating a commercial enterprise and holding executive positions in companies. EPPO reported legal incapacitation for the duration of certain sentences, as well as confiscation affecting real estate and company shares.
The prosecution described a network divided into operational groups and active through domestic and foreign companies. These included missing traders, brokers and other intermediaries. In its account of the judgment, EPPO said the judge accepted almost all of the prosecution’s reconstruction of the organisation. The full proceedings involve more than 400 individuals and legal entities as suspects.
That wider number should not be confused with the six defendants covered by the September decision. A large investigation can produce different proceedings and outcomes for different participants. The latest judgment establishes findings in these cases at first instance. It does not mean that every person or company mentioned in the wider investigation has been convicted.
VAT carousel fraud exploits the way tax and commercial transactions pass through chains of businesses trading across borders. A company may collect tax and fail to pay it, while another part of the chain claims a deduction or refund. The Moby Dick findings add a further element: the use of money from organised crime to finance the trading structure and to conceal the origins of criminal proceeds.
That connection helps explain why the case extends beyond unpaid tax. Funds originating in other criminal activity can enter a commercial arrangement that generates invoices, bank transfers and apparent sales revenue. The court findings described by EPPO concern the role of mafia money within this particular network. They should not be generalised into an allegation against the electronics sector or every firm trading the products mentioned.
The investigation combined work initially carried out by different Italian authorities. EPPO’s offices in Milan and Palermo brought together proceedings involving financial police in Varese and Milan and state police units in Palermo, alongside other specialist services. Some parties affected by seizure orders have already settled debts with the tax authorities, according to EPPO, although the announcement does not give a combined repayment figure.
The confiscation order also requires precise reporting. An order for more than €300 million is a judicial measure against criminal proceeds; it is not a statement that the same amount has already been collected and distributed to public budgets. The judgments provide a substantial court outcome in Moby Dick, including prison terms and findings on mafia involvement. Their final status remains subject to the appeal process, while the wider investigation and proceedings concerning other suspects continue separately.
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