Almost two million in revenues and over 648 thousand euros in profits. Only two employees and a core business based on Beyond, a platform that aggregates information from various sources. This is the profile of Equalize Srl, the IT company at the centre of the investigation of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office on charges of having spied on politicians, entrepreneurs, managers and VIPs by also drawing on the Investigation System (Sdi) of the Ministry of the Interior, i.e. the database of the police force, and other state archives.
Equalize what it is and what it does
Equalize is an IT company with a 95% controlling shareholder Henry Pazzali – self-suspended president of the Fiera Milano Foundation (not involved in the facts) – while the remaining 5% is in the hands of the retired former policeman Carmine Gallo, for years at the Milan Mobile Squad.
The company was founded 6 years ago in Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milan) by Pazzali himself as director and sole shareholder. As he explains mf, “in March of the following year, Equalize's shareholders' book changed and Pazzali sold 15% which was divided equally between Gallo, Jaba srl of Pierfrancesco Barletta and Fg Consulting of Stefano Filucchi, a former manager of the Ministry of the Interior - Department of Public Security where he led various offices and with a past also in the Saras group and recently joined the board of directors of the Sae Group, which publishes several newspapers. On December 3, 2021, both Barletta and Filucchi sold all their shares, for 30 thousand euros each, to Gallo who therefore rose to 15% and a year later, as mentioned, fell to 5%”.
The company has only two employees and guaranteed the two administrators (Pazzali and Gallo) compensation of 135 thousand euros.
Officially Equalize is a IT company specializing in corporate risk analysisi. In short, customers turn to the company for information. This information would have been collected through the Beyond platform, capable of aggregating data from various sources, both legal and otherwise. According to investigators, this technology would in fact have "the ability to exploit, integrate and assemble information marketed by third-party companies such as Infocamere, Cerved and so on, as well as that available on publicly accessible databases and aggregators, such as for example the half-yearly reports of the DIA or certain newspapers".
Among the information collected, the Milan prosecutor's office accuses, there would be data taken illegally from databases used by law enforcement. In the investigation documents, the public prosecutor Francesco De Tommasi spoke of the “creation of real, prohibited parallel databases,” and defined the subjects under investigation as “extremely dangerous” because “with the indiscriminate circulation of news, sensitive, confidential and secret information, they are able to ‘hold citizens and institutions in their grip’.”
Equalize's balance sheets
In 2023 Equalize recorded 1,9 million euros in revenues, up from 1,7 million in 2022. In just four years, the company's turnover has exploded: just think that in 2019 revenues amounted to 390 thousand euros, which became 508 thousand in 2020 and almost doubled in 2021. Also on the rise the profit, which in 2023 stood at 648 thousand euros, 9 thousand euros more than the 639 thousand of the previous year. The net assets last year amounted to 1,3 million, while the debts decreased from 495 thousand euros to 295 thousand euros.
And let's move on with the numbers: in 2023 the liquid assets were equal to 1 million euros, while the skyrocketing production costs. had risen to 711 thousand euros from 563 thousand in 2022. Also on the rise amortization of intangible assets, went from 1.445 euros in 2022 to 39.828 euros at the end of 2023. Among the expenses that fall under this heading is Beyond, the platform at the center of the investigation.
Public databases breached
In addition to the Sdi, the Law enforcement investigation system, the archives of theINPS, those of Serpico, a computer system for collecting and processing data from the Revenue Agency that serves to cross-reference possible cases of tax evasion and which stores tax returns; the Anpr, the National Registry of the Resident Population; the Siva, the Financial Police's Currency Information System where reports of suspicious financial transactions transmitted by the Bank of Italy converge; the database of the Consob, "a public information system that allows for the availability of a strategic and very broad knowledge base, through which to influence and direct markets for the most disparate purposes", we read in the investigation documents.
Even confidential documents of Eni in the hands of cyber-spies
“They have also been identifiedconfidential documents of Eni Spa” in the offices in Milan, where Equalize is based. As can be read in the documents, in the company premises, in addition to “a real Police archive” there are “numerous” documents on Paolo Simeone “a well-known Italian YouTuber and contractor” but also “confidential documents” of the oil group.
Arrested and investigated
The former policeman ended up under house arrest Carmine Gallo, CEO of Equalize, a company owned by the president of Fondazione Fiera Henry Pazzali (under investigation, but not currently subject to precautionary measures), the IT expert Nunzio Calamucci, Massimiliano Camponovo and Giulio Cornelli, owners or partners of related companies specialized in security and IT. The investigating judge Fabrizio Filice also signed a suspension from service order for a financier and a police officer and seized, in addition to Equalize, Mercury Advisor srls and Develop and Go srls.
Also investigated, among others, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, which he would have asked for and obtained information about the brothers and the mother herself, Nicoletta Zampillo, for inheritance reasons and on his then girlfriend, model and actress, Jessica Michel Serfaty). Among those under investigation are also Matteo Arpe and his brother Fabio for unauthorized access to the Alessandria branch of Banco Bpm; the CEO of Banca Profilo Fabio Candeli and Fulvio Pravadelli, the former Publitalia manager and general manager of Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, who allegedly had the singer-songwriter Alex Britti “spyed” due to his separation from his daughter. Among Equalize's clients are also managers of the energy company Erg and Barilla, all under investigation, who allegedly requested the spying on some employees. In total, there are approximately 800 thousand profiles in the dossiers.
