The Public Ministry (MP) announced today that, between January 1st and November 23rd, 4.631 new investigations into corruption and related crimes were registered, 28,7% more than in the comparable period.
During this period, “4.631 new investigations were registered relating to crimes of corruption and related criminality (which include crimes of abuse of power, harmful administration, money laundering, economic participation in business, embezzlement, malfeasance, undue receipt of advantage and trafficking in influence”, reads a report by the MP, released on International Day against Corruption.
In 2022, in the comparable period, 3.598 inquiries were received, thus registering an increase of 28,7%.
Until November 23, 191 investigations were charged, provisional suspension of proceedings was applied in 27 cases and 1.521 investigations were closed.
With regard to the prevention and repression of money laundering and terrorist financing, since January and until November 30, 15.926 communications were received and analyzed, “1.096 of which under the obligation to abstain, a number that already exceeds 14.393 communications throughout 2022”.
According to the same document, after carrying out steps to determine the legality or illegality of the banking or financial operation, 746 suspensions of banking operations were determined and 746 investigations were opened.
The value of suspended operations stood at 71.027.296,04 euros, down from 104.116.635,32 euros in the same period last year, 6.431.232 dollars (11.102.276,85 in the same period last year) and 20.414 pounds sterling ( 2.912.045,03 in the same period of 2022).
However, the MP highlighted that the data relates to September 30th and is not consolidated, meaning that communications received from entities such as banks, casinos or online betting agencies may not yet reflect all of the suspended amounts.
In the first 11 months of the year, there were 1.748 complaints received through the “Corruption: Report Here” application, available on the MP portal.
Of these, 492 (28,15%) were presented by identified whistleblowers.
“The complaints analyzed during this period, which include complaints carried over from 2022, totaling 1.672, gave rise to a preventive investigation and 1.373 investigations. The number of investigations initiated corresponds to a percentage of around 8,2% compared to the number of complaints analyzed”, he detailed.
With regard to the areas covered by the reported activity, the most frequent complaints come from the local administration (524).
This is followed by companies (305) and unspecified entities (280).
The MP also indicated that 72 complaints were received linked to sporting activity, 66 to central State services and 30 to fraud relating to European Union funds.
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