Antonio Velardo, followed by prejudice and falsely portrayed as a criminal. The actual truth of his legal case.

Antonio Velardo, followed by prejudice and falsely portrayed as a criminal. The actual truth of his legal case.

Antonio Velardo has been followed by prejudice. Firstly, Calabrian prosecutors, who had to admit their mistake, and due to a bank leak, now OCCRP and its press group are falsely portraying him as a criminal while the facts and legal documents clearly prove his innocence.

It is tough to fight fake news. The media is looking for controversy at all costs, and some journalists are willing to sacrifice the truth in order to gain relevance. Others have no idea of how the justice and legal cases work in the different jurisdictions and are biased toward what they believe is a well-working system. This publication aims to demonstrate with facts based on proper legal documentation the fakeness and huge mistakes of the press.

OCCRP is leading the Credit Suisse leak, hundreds of accounts that have been the subject of legal proceedings in the past were investigated and publicly published by the press group. Velardo’s case was guided by a group of young journalists based in Italy working under the umbrella of IrpiMedia. The full court documents related to Velardo’s legal case are composed of thousands of pages. The investigation against Velardo lasted for several years, the prosecutor started it in 2007 and accused him in 2013 when an order of arrest was submitted against Velardo and later canceled by the court due to lack of proof.

What is behind the premise of the allegations against Velardo by the press group?

Until 2009 Switzerland’s banking laws were not compliant with the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) rules because of the Swiss banking secrecy regimen regarding tax offenses which up to that moment were not considered a crime in Switzerland. However, in that year the country reviewed its laws to comply with the OECD Model Standard. Therefore, when the Credit Suisse bank leak occurred, the OCCRP press group started to filter the accounts held by individuals who had been involved in legal proceedings in the past. Most of them are oligarchs of different countries who allegedly stashed money in the bank in order to avoid taxation and hide financial crimes. The “first criminal case ever launched against a Swiss bank” has been filled due to the leak according to OCCRP.

Among the names in Italy, Velardo’s one popped up to IrpiMedia, a Rome-based journalist group working on some of the leak coincidences in the country. Apparently, the young journalists rushed to the prosecutors in order to inquire about and resurrect Velardo’s case which started in 2013 and was closed as a complete mistake of the prosecutors of the Calabrian region in the south of Italy that requested Velardo’s acquittal because “Antonio Velardo didn’t commit the crime” as the trials documents states.

OCCRP central and main premise, as they have stated is that “if the prosecutors have had access to Velardo’s accounts in Credit Suisse bank, they would have found him guilty of money laundering for the ’Ndrangheta mafia”. Nevertheless, this is false as no account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the trials.

The investigations against Velardo started in 2007 and he was accused in 2013. The Italian authorities made an international rogatory and after the process was correctly fulfilled in 2014, the Swiss authorities approved the confiscation of Velardo’s accounts and delivered them to the Italian prosecutors. In 2016, after years of trials, the same prosecutors requested Velardo’s acquittal because “he committed no crime”. The Swiss authorities not just delivered the accounts to the Italian authorities but also, because of the accusations, started a proper investigation of Velardo’s accounts but didn’t charge him because there was no indication of any type of crime in the source or transactions of funds in his accounts. Velardo was compensated by the Swiss government for the mistake.

Based on this false and wrong argument, the newspapers associated with the OCCRP journalism group have fabricated a very damaging long list of criminal allegations and connections that were not even in the original legal case 10 years ago. The inventions grow every day as new reporters echo the news and keep adding more fake information portraying Velardo as a professional criminal, mafia member, scammer, and money launder.

Before writing the report, the journalist group had to focus on understanding Velardo’s legal case from accusations by the Calabrian prosecutors to the full acquittal.

Velardo was investigated and accused in a region where the prosecutors are clearly biased under the malicious prejudice of the historical mafia of the area. Is not by coincidence that the prosecutors of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, the exact prosecutors that charged Velardo, in 2018 and 2019 accounted for more than 23% of unjust detentions in the whole country while these cities together represent less than 1% of the country’s population. They also represent more than 37% of the total amount paid in reparations due to unjust detentions and for every reparation, these two cities pay more than 59.9% and 56.5% of the average reparation per case. If you only consider the average compensation of the other cities, then Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria are overpaying 156% and 150% they affect that much the statistics of unjust detentions in Italy as the case has been studied as an influential outlier.

He was accused in two probes called “Metropolis” and “Black Money”. The following page aims to very briefly explain the legal case. However, the cases had several implications that are widely explained in two previous publications. The first one is the explanation of the cases done by Velardo himself and the other one is a brief legal dossier that also includes the legal documents from the trials. Here is also a legal opinion by lawyer Aldo Labate.

Metropolis case:

This case started on the wrong foot from the very beginning. To initiate the case and as part of the precautionary measure, the prosecutor submitted an order of arrest, which is the norm for this type of accusation. However, as the prosecutor could not provide any proof all charges remained as just allegations and the warrant of arrest was canceled by the court due to the lack of evidence.

The only accusation Velardo has ever had for money laundering for the mafia was in this first case where the prosecutor accused Velardo’s company of laundering money through a project called Jewel of the Sea. There was no evidence for the accusation it was simply ridiculous. All the money into this project was proven in court to be sourced by the clients and formally-registered loans.  Therefore, the only theory that connected Velardo to laundering money for the mafia was left without allegations.

In this case, the prosecutor who originally charged Velardo requested his full acquittal from the judge. Antonio Velardo was fully acquitted under the request of the prosecutor because “the accused didn’t commit the crime” as is stated in the trial documents.

Black Money case:

For this case, the prosecutor accused Velardo of “external association to the mafia” under the theory that some small commissions paid by Velardo’s company to a real estate listing agent, who was accused of the mafia in the same trial, were believed by the prosecutors to be payments for the mafia. The listing agent, who apart from this case has never been involved in any legal proceeding, was acquitted of the mafia charges in the trials. Consequently, Velardo was acquitted, this time again the prosecutor requested Velardo’s acquittal as it was clear that he didn’t commit the crime.

In this probe, Velardo was also accused together with his lawyer and accountants of “tax evasion”, “criminal association for conspiracy to tax evasion” and “money laundering of the tax shield”. The following two paragraphs aim to understand Velardo’s tax situation and background.

Tax situation and background:

Velardo, who was born in Italy, moved abroad in the late ‘90s while pursuing a Pilot career in the USA. However, in 2002 after the 9/11 events, the aviation industry was in distress and Velardo moves to the UK to study Civil Engineer, and, after his graduation started to work in the real estate field. He has never lived in Italy more than the 183 days that the law required him to be considered an Italian resident and therefore he thought he was not obligated to pay taxes as a resident. However, he never reported a formal residency in another country through AIRE (associazione italiani residenti all’estero – Association of Italians residing abroad) which could be requested as a requisite by the Italian tax authority to prove residency abroad.

Following the advice of his accountants, Velardo applies to the Italian tax shield amnesty launched in 2009. The objective of the amnesty was to bring money back to the country from Italian residents with businesses abroad that didn’t report those earnings to the Italian tax authorities.

The tax evasion charges were dropped by the court as Velardo had already complied with the tax authorities via the tax amnesty even though he didn’t renew the amnesty secrecy which was misinterpreted by the prosecutor. The money laundering from the tax amnesty was dropped because “the fact didn’t represent a crime” (the prosecutors accused Velardo of something that was not even a crime).

The only charge left, “criminal association for conspiracy to tax evasion”, was under the prosecutor’s theory that Velardo’s companies abroad were paper companies that were created to avoid Italian taxation and commit tax evasion. Even though in the same case Velardo was acquitted for “tax evasion”, the judge, with the clear knowledge that Velardo’s defense would appeal to the higher court of the second degree to be examined by senior judges, ruled against Antonio and the charge was immediately appealed to the second degree. Due to the slow pace of the Italian justice system and the time that had elapsed, this charge was dropped in the second degree by the statute of limitations.

Two probes and zero convictions another failure to the long list of the Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria prosecutors.

Henry Fitzsimons who was accused alongside Velardo ad they were both owners of the companies implied in the first case. Had been compensated with a 30% above the norm reparation for the unjust detention. Velardo was never brought to jail and for that reason, he was not compensated as well.

It’s deeply frustrating how a 10-year-old justice miscarriage has turned into a spiral of misfortune for me and my family, they have re-victimized me once again — Antonio Velardo stated when commenting about the recent news.

The reporters could have read the court documents as they are available by request to the public, but they apparently had already made up their minds.

In order to fool the reader and fulfill their not-so-hidden Machiavellian agenda, the press narrative is purposely developed in a way that distorts the truth. Also, the writer’s lies are so evident that the article, when read carefully, is contradictory in its two main arguments.

In the following table, we undress the lies one by one. We have proven with legal documentation that OCCRP and his press associates are totally wrong. The writers paraphrase the same lies several times so you will find that the same truth is repeated as it applies. However, not every paraphrase is debated here as sometimes it is just the exact same argument and it becomes just pure repetition.

On the left side of the table, you will find the OCCRP article’s main false allegations, and on the right side the reality of the case, the truth.

 

FALSE ALLEGATIONS	TRUTH
The title states: ’Ndrangheta-Linked Broker Banked at Credit Suisse	Antonio Velardo has never been directly linked to the ‘Ndrangheta. The prosecutors of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria accused him of “external association to the mafia” which could not be proven in court and was dismissed by the prosecutor himself who requested Velardo’s total acquittal to the judge.
Antonio Velardo and former IRA bomber Henry “Harry” Fitzsimons teamed up to sell apartments in a large development in Calabria.	Fitzsimons was a client assigned to Velardo while he was working as a real estate broker around 2005. In the early ‘70s, Fitzsimons was convicted as a member of the radical organization called IRA and he was freed in the late ‘70s he was freed.  As it was proven in court, Velardo didn’t know about his past, Velardo wasn’t even born when Fitzsimons was convicted about 40 years before they met.
Newly leaked bank data shows Velardo had hidden away a small fortune at Credit Suisse, – beyond the reach of hapless creditors (next point).	No account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the case. The accounts were later returned, and he was compensated for the mistake as there was no indication of any criminal activities in his accounts.
“beyond the reach of hapless creditors” –  A lawyer for the victims of the Calabrian saga, who lost millions on apartments that were never built, says Velardo has a lot to answer for.	Velardo or any of his companies have never been sued by the clients of the “Jewel of the Sea” complex. Velardo’s company was a real estate agency in charge of promoting and selling more than fifteen developments. Velardo doesn’t have any clients as creditors as his company was just a broker and had no responsibility for the development of the projects. All of the projects were successfully delivered but “Jewel of the Sea” where just a minority of clients received their apartments because the Italian authorities confiscated the construction site and stopped the work of the developer. As it was proven in court, Antonio or his company doesn’t have anything to do with this. The lawyer’s insurance company has already reimbursed part of the money back to the clients. The lawyer was in charge of the “due diligence” and insurance registration in favor of the clients.
Italian investigators seized it (Jewel of the Sea) because its developer was mafia-connected.	One of the partners of the developer company was convicted for “mafia association”, however, he was acquitted for “money laundry” as all the money for the development of the project was proven in court to be sourced by the clients and formally-registered loans.
Velardo, who had at least six accounts at Credit Suisse, was charged with money laundering for the mafia but was acquitted, in part because Italian authorities say Swiss authorities were not particularly helpful.	The investigations against Velardo started in 2007 and he was accused in 2013. The Italian authorities made an international rogatory and after the process was correctly fulfilled, in 2014 the Swiss authorities approved the confiscation of Velardo’s accounts and delivered them to the Italian prosecutors. In 2016, after years of trials, the same prosecutors requested Velardo’s acquittal because “he committed no crime”. The Swiss authorities not just delivered the accounts to the Italian authorities but also, because of the accusations, started a proper investigation of Velardo’s accounts but didn’t charge him because there was no indication of any type of crime in the source of the transactions of his accounts. Velardo was compensated for the mistake.
Antonio Velardo was on edge. The suspected money launderer had heard Switzerland had moved to dilute its famous banking secrecy laws so that foreign authorities would be able to track down bank accounts linked to tax evasion.   Velardo, who had turned to Switzerland to stash the equivalent of several million dollars, had reason to be worried. As part of an Italian police probe code-named Operation Metropolis that had started the previous year, he was being pursued by investigators who believed he was cleaning money for the ’Ndrangheta, one of the world’s biggest criminal groups.	No account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the case. The accounts were later returned, and he was compensated for the mistake as there was no indication of any criminal activities in his accounts. Velardo has never been directly linked to the ‘Ndrangheta. The prosecutors of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria accused him of “external association to the mafia” which could not be proven in court and was dismissed by the prosecutor himself who requested Velardo’s total acquittal to the judge.
In the end, however, Switzerland’s overhaul of its banking regime wasn’t as extensive as Velardo had feared, and his financial secrets remained just that. Until now.	No account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the case. The accounts were later returned, and he was compensated for the mistake as there was no indication of any criminal activities in his accounts.
Some of Velardo’s own money can be traced to Credit Suisse, where he held secret accounts. Some of them have remained beyond the reach of Italian authorities, even after police seized the seaside apartment complex in which Velardo and Fitzsimons were major players after suspecting it was used to launder ’Ndrangheta drug money. “Swiss banks are key for the ’Ndrangheta,” said one of Reggio Calabria’s top anti-mafia prosecutors. “Clans can bring money in safes there, and we would never know. It has taken place since the 1980s, with the spalloni [bagmen] of the ’Ndrangheta walking up to Switzerland with cash. “Now it happens in more sophisticated ways, with transactions made by financial holdings from around the world. But the concept stays the same.”	Again here, no account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the case. The accounts were later returned, and he was compensated for the mistake as there was no indication of any criminal activities in his accounts. The article is here directly referring to the Jewel of the Sea complex where not even the developer, convicted for the mafia, was found guilty of money laundering as the source of money was proven in court to be from the clients and formally registered loans.
The victims of the saga — who lost millions, according to a lawyer representing them — say Velardo and Fitzsimons have a lot to answer for. Simon Chambers has represented dozens of the case’s victims. After years of litigation, his clients received up to half their money back via an insurance claim. But had the extent of Velardo’s Credit Suisse accounts been known, Chambers said, the case might have been different. “If that resource was available to them as a source of potential damages, [my clients] would be disgusted today to learn that Velardo has lined his pockets,” Chambers said. “We knew the money had gone somewhere — it had to go somewhere.”	In the past argument the article states that the complex objective was to launder the ’Ndrangheta money and in this argument, they allege that the same complex was a sort of scam to take the money of the clients. These are by themselves contradictory statements. What money is there to launder for the mafia if the money was of the clients who have lost part of it because the Italian authorities confiscated the site. Velardo or any of his companies have never been sued by the clients of the “Jewel of the Sea” complex. Velardo’s company was a real estate agency in charge of promoting and selling more than fifteen developments. Velardo doesn’t have any clients as creditors as his company was just a broker and had no responsibility for the development of the projects. All of the projects were successfully delivered but “Jewel of the Sea” where just a minority of clients received their apartments because the Italian authorities confiscated the construction site and stopped the work of the developer. As it was proven in court, Antonio or his company doesn’t have anything to do with this. The lawyer’s insurance company has already reimbursed part of the money back to the clients. The lawyer was in charge of the “due diligence” and insurance registration in favor of the clients.
Convicted of petty crime as a young man, he lived in the U.S. and U.K. before relocating to Cape Verde, the Atlantic archipelago off the coast of Senegal, where the ’Ndrangheta is believed by Italian investigators to have a presence.	After graduating from Civil Engineering in the UK, Velardo was working for a prominent Real Estate Agency in Spain and was promoted to Commercial Director in Cape Verde. He has never been accused of being involved in the mafia in connection to Cape Verde. This was never mentioned in the original accusations or the trials and is a pure fabrication of the press to decorate the report with fake allegations that make Velardo appear as a long-time professional criminal. He was promoted and relocated to Cape Verde by the Spanish company he was working for after graduating with honors of Civil Engineer in the UK and, as was proven in court has never been involved with the mafia or any criminal organization. He was acquitted of all charges and especially of the crimes related to the mafia the same prosecutors, who accused him in the first place, requested Velardo’s acquittal.
That’s where, in the mid-2000s, he started working with Fitzsimons, an enigmatic former senior IRA officer who served a decade in prison for a 1971 bombing. Once free, he told reporters he had quit the IRA but still backed its political cause. Then, seemingly overnight, he became a heavyweight property developer in Belfast.	Velardo was born in 1977 and more than 40 years had already passed between Fitzsimons crimes and when they met. After his served time, Fitzsimons developed a successful business in the center of Belfast. Being a former IRA member, the Ireland authorities never accused him of any crime after that. His businesses in Belfast were clean and 40 years later Velardo didn’t know about Fitzsimons’ past convictions.
Soon, the pair began buying up property in tourist resorts around Europe. According to Italian investigators, they didn’t seem to care “about the price of such assets, as if they had an unlimited amount of money.”	Another invention fabricated by the press to make the case appealing to the readers. This is a pure fake statement. The business was totally legit and profitable as proven in court, is impossible not to care about the assets price for a regular business established in Ireland where all the taxes and obligations were paid on time. Then they highlight “as if they had an unlimited amount of money”. The level of treachery in the article is really high, there is an unfounded lie that suggests the money came from obscure sources while in court all the money was proven to be legit.
In 2006, the pair opened an Irish company VFI Overseas Properties Real Estate Agent Ltd., to launch real estate projects around the ’Ndrangheta heartland of Calabria, on the toe of Italy’s boot. The Calabrian town of Africo wasn’t an obvious tourist destination, given its oppressive levels of organized crime. Nonetheless, by March 2007 Velardo and Fitzsimons were involved in a major project on ’Ndrangheta turf.	The south of Italy and especially the Calabrian region is an extraordinarily beautiful but misjudged place where the malicious prejudice of the historical mafia has prevented the communities to flourish to the extent they should and deserve. Velardo, who by the time had lived all his adult life abroad and was not aware of this disadvantageous preconception, so he sought an opportunity there to bring people from the cold and grey places of the north of Europe to these amazing blue coasts. What is not ’Ndrangheta turf to the writer? Cape Verde, Calabria, the whole of Italy, Florida in the USA and practically all the places where Antonio ever made businesses are falsely portrayed as mafia places without any evidence that links Velardo to the mafia.
In March 2007, their company signed a deal with Antonio Cuppari, who was constructing a huge apartment complex in the seaside town of Brancaleone. Under the deal, VFI would sell apartments at the Jewel of the Sea complex, as Cuppari’s project would come to be known, in exchange for an unusually large 31 percent of the total sales price upfront.	VFI was selling more than 15 projects and in 2009 won one of the most important real estate awards in Europe. The company was a premium agency with offices in several cities in Europe. All the sales, advertising, and marketing expenses of the Jewel of the Seas project were on VFI’s shoulders which also had sub-agencies as it was working as a master broker for the project. The payments were commission-based, and the risk of the costs was all on VFI’s side, therefore the negotiations were, in the golden era of the European real estate, favorable but not “largely unusual” under the circumstances, and the cost related risks of the negotiation for VFI.
At a property exhibition in London, Fitzsimons and Velardo approached the owner of a London law firm, Giambrone and Law, who then began arranging Jewel of the Sea sales on their behalf. They touted the amenities the complex would one day have: a shopping mall, a five-star hotel, and its own golf course. Their sales pitch was convincing, and hundreds of foreign buyers ended up purchasing apartments in what they thought would be a lavish coastal development. But what they didn’t know was that it was being built by a member of the most powerful local ’Ndrangheta clan.	Giambrone and Law was a recognized law firm in Europe. The firm was in charge of the due diligence of both the developer and the clients, the escrow accounting, the reviewing of the construction insurance in favor of each client, and the contract and agreement arrangements. Of course, VFI’s sales pitch was convincing, a small but top real estate agency with more than 15 premium projects and several offices in Europe. As the article states and was proven in court and the interrogatories held by the Italian authorities, we did not know that the developer was a mafia member. However, as all the money for the project was from legal sources, even though the developer was convicted for mafia association, he was not convicted for money laundering as all the money for the project was proven to be legit from the clients and formal loans. There was not even one penny of ‘Ndrangheta or any other mafia or criminal group in the project.
Cuppari was the local bagman for the Brancaleone-based Morabito Tiradrittu clan, who dominate the cocaine trade between Latin America and Europe.	Cuppari, the developer, was not convicted of money laundering. The term “bagman” is an allegation that he managed money from the mafia but it was proven in court that all the money of the project was from proven legal sources.
In May 2007, Velardo bought plots of land next to Cuppari’s, with the idea of folding them into the Jewel of the Sea development. He knew authorities believe, that since he was working with Cuppari — a high-ranking ’Ndrangheta man masquerading as a developer — he was protected.   While Fitzsimons and Velardo officially put 1 million euros into the project, Cuppari kept pouring in funds that Italian officials would later suspect was ’Ndrangheta drug money.	Again, more fabricated and unfounded allegations and accusations with not one single piece of evidence. Velardo or anyone at VFI knew Cuppari was a mafia member, he was convicted for this after the development was completed in more than 60%.   The developer asked VFI for a loan in order to accelerate the construction to which we agreed as it was convenient for us as well because we were selling the project. He was clearly not in the best economic position in the moment, if he had access to the money from the mafia why would he request a loan? This is contradictory and fabricated. Not one penny was found to be mafia, drug, or from any other criminal source to the project. Cuppari was fully acquitted of money laundering as all the money that founded the project was proven from legal sources.
In 2007 and 2008, Italian police began investigating Velardo in two separate probes. They suspected him of laundering profits not just for the Morabitos, but also for the Mancusos of Limbadi, 60 kilometers to the north.   After years of police surveillance of Cuppari, Velardo, and Fitzsimons, anti-mafia authorities seized the partially-built Jewel of the Sea complex in 2013. Cuppari was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison for mafia association and being part of the ’Ndrangheta of Africo. Velardo and Fitzsimons were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence.  Although VFI sold hundreds of apartments in the complex, according to court records, journalists found that only 33 buyers ever received the keys to their properties. Chambers said that many apartments bought by his clients were never built at all. As well as the insurance money Chambers’ clients received, Giambrone and Law would later be ordered to pay 41 customers some 3.5 million euros in compensation.	This is a shameless and totally unfounded lie. Velardo was never accused or suspected of laundering money for the Mancusos and was acquitted of money laundering related to Cuppari in the Jewel of the Sea project.  The only accusation Velardo has ever had for money laundering for the mafia was in the “Metropolis” probe where the prosecutor accused VFI owners and the developers and were all acquitted for money laundering, it was demonstrated that in the project there was no money from crime.  Cuppari was as well acquitted of money laundering as it was proven in court that all the money of the Jewel of the Sea development was from legal sources, mainly from the clients. In this case, the prosecutor who originally charged Velardo requested his full acquittal in the trials. Antonio Velardo was fully acquitted under the request of the prosecutor because “the fact didn’t exist” as is stated in the trial documents. Velardo has never been accused of laundering money for the Mancusos’ mafia or any other criminal group besides the first accusations from which he was fully acquitted under the request of the prosecutor.
Neither Ireland nor the U.K. were much help on Fitzsimons and Velardo. Irish authorities did not communicate any bank information and the Italian request to track the pair’s money faltered. In Switzerland, the Italian authorities’ initial requests were unfruitful.	Why would Ireland and the UK authorities not comply with the Italian authorities? This is fake and unfounded. What actually happened, as it happened with the initial warrant of arrest, is that the prosecutor didn’t have a single piece of evidence making any confiscation illegal and subject to reparations as the Swiss and the same Italian authorities had to pay to Velardo and Fitzsimons respectively.
At the Italian-Swiss border, police stopped one of Velardo’s Calabrian accountants, Ercole Palasciano, just after he had met Velardo. They searched the financial files he was carrying, and one of Velardo and Fitzsimons’ offshore interests was laid bare. The papers showed that Velardo and Fitzsimons owned a trusted company together in Cyprus, which appeared to be where they were sending real estate profits — including Jewel of the Sea money — to avoid taxes.	This is a direct and defamatory accusation “to avoid taxes”. How did OCCRP dare to accuse Velardo of tax evasion when he was fully acquitted of this charge by the Italian judges. There is and never has been any evidence nor a single proof that indicates Velardo was committing tax evasion, this is simply a lie.The reference to the trust company is made with not even an explanation of how it was used to avoid taxes. They highlight the complex “fiduciaries” scheme without explaining to the reader how and why the tax authorities were circumvented.  The Cypriot trust company (related documents were deposited at trial) was a completely legal holding company, which subsequently became a shareholder of VFI, this change was made in full transparency, changing one’s personal shares with a holding company is completely legal, in fact, the operation allowed legitimate savings in withholding taxes, at the suggestion of VFI’s accountants. This transaction was carried out in Ireland as required by Irish law.
As well as putting money offshore, Velardo was hiding some in Switzerland; the Suisse Secrets data shows that Velardo held one personal account and two corporate accounts at Credit Suisse.   By 2011 his personal account had reached a maximum balance of 1.75 million Swiss francs ($1.92 million), and one of the company accounts was worth 1.52 million Swiss francs ($1.81 million). A smaller company account held a maximum balance of 29,300 Swiss francs ($36,931) before being closed in 2012. Velardo also had three other Credit Suisse accounts that do not appear in the data, Italian police later learned.   When Velardo was heard on wiretaps in 2009 fretting over the easing of Swiss banking secrecy, Italian officials had asked Swiss authorities to trace his assets but they were short on hard facts.   Prosecutors who worked on the Operation Metropolis case in 2013 told OCCRP they had “a trace bringing them to Credit Suisse, but then Switzerland can collaborate only if you already know the number of the accounts, so we could never really prove it.”	Velardo has never hidden any money in Switzerland or any other country.  No account was ever hidden. Velardo opened accounts in Credit Suisse in 2010 about a year after the historic revision of the banking secrecy laws in Switzerland. Also, his accounts were seized and investigated by both the Italian and the Swiss authorities during the case. The accounts were later returned, and he was compensated for the mistake as there was no indication of any criminal activities in his accounts. The Italian prosecutors were short in all facts because, as they admitted and were proven in court, there was no evidence against Velardo because he didn’t commit any crime.
Without this information, Swiss authorities said they could not help. It was not until 2014, one year after the Black Money and Metropolis charges against Velardo, that Italian authorities would learn of these accounts’ existence from the Swiss.	A contradictory and distorted statement. Now the Italian authorities did have access (the accounts were not hidden) but did one year later mean anything? No, because the case ended in 2016, and also then the authorities could appeal, but how would they appeal? Even having all the accounts there was no indication of any criminal activity, so the prosecutor requested Velardo’s acquittal.
Both of Velardo’s more valuable accounts from the Suisse Secrets data remained open well after the Metropolis and Black Money operations had been run through the courts.	The accounts were confiscated, investigated by both the Italian and Swiss authorities, and then returned back to Velardo because he was fully acquitted also under the request of the prosecutor. There was no reason to close the accounts as they were totally legal and legit.
According to Calabrian investigators, tracing the financial flows of Fitzsimons and Velardo proved very difficult since cash was being routed through various tax havens, its winding path deliberately muddied.   “It was impossible to demonstrate the money flow,” one prosecutor told OCCRP.	This is another lie, the money was traced back to the clients this was proven in court. Velardo never received money directly from the developer or the clients but via the legal firm that represented the clients only after the due diligence was done on both sides and the insurance in favor of the clients was registered and reviewed.
Facing two separate sets of charges stemming from alleged money laundering in 2013, Velardo was later acquitted in Reggio Calabria on the Operation Metropolis charges. Though initially convicted over the Black Money probe for criminal association and tax evasion charges, the case was dropped on appeal after the statute of limitations expired. His partner, Fitzsimons, was also acquitted after being arrested in Senegal and extradited to Italy to stand trial.	More lies and distortion. “Criminal association and tax evasion charges”; the criminal association crime is called “criminal association for conspiracy to tax evasion” when you just take the first piece this is then a new accusation. Velardo was acquitted of all these charges, including tax evasion in the first degree. Conspiracy to tax evasion was the only way for which the statute of limitations expired. This was a very weak accusation under the theory that Velardo’s companies abroad were fake paper companies which was clearly a lie as all the employees, clients, taxes and other expenses were available to prove these companies were working, legal and legit. Fitzsimons was unjustly arrested and was compensated for this with an extra 30% of the normal by the Italian authorities.
The following year, Velardo opened the first of his Credit Suisse accounts, declaring his country of residence to be Tunisia — a move he made apparently for the sole purpose of avoiding taxes.	Velardo’s company had projects and he was living full-time in Tunisia because of the businesses here before the revolution started in the country. This is another defamatory accusation that was proven false in court.
OCCRP and its partners also found traces of Velardo in the U.S. real estate market, where companies linked to him and three other associates bought up more than 130 Florida homes beginning in 2012. Most were bought with cash, in the years after Velardo was charged over the Jewel of the Sea.	Not even one time has Velardo or his company bought any property with cash, this is a totally fabricated lie with no evidence or proof at all. All transactions made by Velardo’s companies were via the banking system as any other regular business would do.
But there are signs that Velardo’s ties to Calabria remain strong. In 2018, a proxy Velardo often used in Italy, Francesco Colacino, who was investigated alongside him in the Black Money probe, was given power of attorney over Real Capital Caribe bank accounts.	Velardo has no ties to the Calabrian crime or any other as it was proven in court. This was the first time Velardo had any activity in Calabria, Francesco Colacino was one of Velardo’s company bookkeepers working in the accounting team and he didn’t have any criminal records.