Lire on the Lam

The Mercedes limousine glided to a halt at the Italian customs booth in Ventimiglia on the French frontier. The uniformed chauffeur airily pronounced the ritual phrase "Niente da dichiarare" (Nothing to declare). The passenger in the back seat was Carlo Aloisi, 60, one of Italy's leading bankers and businessmen. Normally, the driver would have been taken at his word and waved on. This time, though, the customs guard made a rare, fortuitous spot check. Digging deep into Aloisi's elegant black briefcase, the guard discovered contraband promissory notes and commercial paper valued at $3.1 million. Under the provisions of Italy's stiff new laws designed to curb the clandestine flow of capital abroad, Aloisi faces a possible six years in prison and fines ranging from $7 million to $14 million.

Without Vice. Italy's banking community expressed shock last week at the arrest of Aloisi, who is widely known as un uomo senza vizi (a man without vice) and a financial wizard. Deputy chairman of one of Italy's largest banks, the elegant, British-tailored Aloisi runs several corporations, owns a racing stable and a famed Via Veneto watering place, the Caffe Doney.

Financial sophisticates also wondered why Aloisi, of all people, would choose so obvious and primitive a method of doing what wealthy Italians have done for years: illicitly exporting their capital to European countries with stronger currencies. Concern over Italy's perennial political instability, fear of a Communist takeover and a national predilection for tax dodging have led bankers and businessmen to squirrel away an estimated $35 billion abroad since 1945, of which about one-third is illegally exported.

Brave Efforts. Last year Italy's hard-pressed Guardia di Finanza (financial police) made brave efforts to stanch the flow of capital. In the first eight months of 1976 more than $11 million in contraband currency was seized, and a further $496 million in illegal financial deals was uncovered. Far more had undoubtedly slipped past the understaffed Guardia. As one of its officers admitted last week, "We would have to mobilize the whole Italian army if we wanted to search every person and car that crossed our frontiers. Last year almost 40 million people crossed into Italy, and of these 15 million came over for less than 24 hours and then went out again. If we searched everybody we would paralyze border traffic and what we would lose from tourism alone would be far greater than the loss suffered from currency smuggling."

Still, only a small proportion of the illegal capital outflow is being transported by Mercedes and motor scooter. Until new antismuggling laws were passed last April, lire in cash or checks could be transferred to some Swiss or Liechtenstein banks via clandestine exchange channels in Rome and Milan. Huge sums have also been sent abroad by the device of under-invoicing exports and over-invoicing imports; the excess amounts were then deposited in bank accounts abroad. But when it seemed that the Communists might make major gains in last June's elections, Switzerland was awash in a flood of lire. In an attempt to crack down on foreign accounts, Guardia officials were reportedly posted outside Swiss banks to take down the license numbers of Italian motorists making deposits.

Last spring Italy declared an amnesty on illegal holdings abroad, provided the owners paid a 15% levy. Since the amnesty expired in early December, 190 people have been arrested for currency crimes. Francis Ravano and Enrico Zenoglio, a pair of shipping and insurance operators from Genoa, were fined a staggering total of $5.7 million for hiding $2 million in foreign bank accounts. Although the $2 million was seized by the Guardia, the defendants thanked the court for its leniency in not sending them to prison.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.