Oil companies in the crosshairs of financiers. The Gdf and the Varese Public Prosecutor's Office have ascertained "the fraudulent rise in fuel prices through speculative manoeuvres" by the oil companies to the detriment of end users.
The investigation was born a year ago on a exposed by Codacons after the continuous increases in fuel prices. The Fiamme Gialle examined the documentation acquired from the oil companies on fuel price trends and the reasons for the variations (increases and decreases) between January 2011 and March 2012.
The investigations also aimed, as stated in the press release, at verifying whether the oil companies "had put in place a particular form of transfer pricing, implemented through intra-community operations of sale and repurchase of petroleum products having as counterpart their own associated companies, so as to allow them to obtain a form of tax saving which would in parallel lead to an increase in prices at the pump practiced in Italy".
