Edenred Italy in the storm. The company, specialized in meal vouchers and restaurant tickets, is at the center of asurvey of the Rome Prosecutor's Office which led to seizure of 20 million seized by the Financial Police. They ended up in the eye of the storm the top management of the company together with four other people, accused of various crimes including aggravated fraud, bid rigging and administrative offences. The facts date back to a period between 2021 and 2023.
“The provision, explains a note from the Rome Prosecutor's Office, is adopted for administrative offenses depending on the crimes of fraud against the State and disturbed freedom of auctions perpetrated, for the benefit of the entity, by 4 legal representatives who have succeeded one another over time”.
Meal voucher scam: illegitimate concessions
The investigations, conducted by the Prosecutor's Office and the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Financial Police of Rome, led to the reconstruction of "potentially fraudulent conduct in the context of participation in a tender for the awarding of the meal voucher service for the public sector". Administration". The estimated value of the tender was 1.250.000.000 euros, and it is believed that such conduct "led to the illegitimate concession to the company of 4 lots, with a total value of approximately 580 million euros".
Edenred Italia, violated the tender rules
According to the crime hypothesis, the company awarded the contract and responsible for issuing the meal vouchers would have "falsely declared” during the presentation of the offer that the discount applied for the Public Administration was equivalent to the commission applied to affiliated businesses. This requirement was fundamental according to the tender rules and the lack of this equivalence would have made the offer inadmissible.
Edenred Italia: “We will clarify shortly”
Regarding the investigation by the Rome Prosecutor's Office, the company intervened with a note expressing the "broadest confidence in the judiciary". Edenred believes he “can clarify the matter as quickly as possible, demonstrating the absence of any profile of responsibility of criminal relevance".
