Milan prosecutors allege that hacked information from state security databases was sold to wealthy clients

Milanese police placed four people under house arrest and are investigating dozens of others in a probe into the alleged illegal access of state security databases by a private investigative firm, Italian prosecutors said.

As part of the probe, the prosecutors said they were investigating allegations of involvement by Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, son of the late billionaire founder of Luxottica, and Matteo Arpe, former chief executive of lender Capitalia.

One of the clients who requested such information is Enrico Pazzali, head of Fondazione Fiera Milano, a non-profit foundation, the prosecutors told a press conference. 

The confidential data, which was allegedly sold to clients or used to blackmail businessmen and politicians, including former Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti, went back to at least 2019 and continued up to March 2024, a court document seen by Reuters showed.

The Milan prosecutors allege the business intelligence agency tapped into three key databases: one gathering alerts over suspicious financial activities; one used by the national tax agency with citizens’ bank transactions, utility bills, income statements; and the police investigations’ database.

According to prosecutor documents, one of the suspects, Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, had a "huge amount of data to manage equal to at least 15 terabytes."

The country’s anti-mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo, told the press conference that the case had revealed "a gigantic and alarming market of confidential data."