In 37,25, the capital lent at usury to families and businesses by criminal organizations amounted to 2015 billion euros, which added to at least 44,7 billion of capital returned as interest reaches a total annual business of nearly 82 billion.
“Criminal organizations – he explains Gian Maria Fara, President of Eurispes – have well understood that usury represents an extraordinarily effective method: on the one hand to launder dirty money and easily obtain large profits, on the other to take over those businesses and activities that are unable to meet the debts incurred, becoming first members and then real owners. All this with lower risks than those associated with other illicit activities such as drug trafficking".
According to the President of Eurispes: "The mafia - especially where and when it is hit by investigations that heavily disrupt some components - chooses a "respite" behavior which can, among other things, bring down a cone of shadow and make its organization less identifiable. From this point of view, it selects its activities by favoring those that allow the maximum benefit with the least risk and among these there is certainly usury, through which a system of roots in the territories and of subjection that is silent as effective is perpetuated”.
"Today - declares the President of Eurispes, Gian Maria Fara - we know that the figure of the usurer is not only traceable among criminals and mafiosi, but is also present among the "unsuspected": shopkeepers, accountants, lawyers, civil servants, who they exploited the long period of economic crisis and the indebtedness of families, merchants and entrepreneurs to get rich, on the strength of the growing difficulties in accessing bank credit. And a new figure was born: that of the usurer in the next room”.
“Evidently, – concludes Gian Maria Fara – we are dealing with a problem of great complexity which requires a multidisciplinary approach which requires, together with repression, a strong commitment on the prevention and therefore cultural front. But, above all, the identification of more flexible and personalized forms of access to official credit which, in times of difficulty, relieve economic operators and households from the pitfalls of a credit that is only apparently easy but essentially fatal”.
The estimate for families was calculated taking into consideration the Eurispes surveys according to which on average in the last two years around 12% (out of a total of 24,6 million families) turned to private individuals (not relatives or friends) to get a loan, not being able to get it from the banking system. It was therefore assumed that the loan would amount, on average, to 10.000 euros (also requested on several occasions), for a figure of 30 billion euros for 3 million families in difficulty.
On the business side, for the agricultural sector, it is estimated that 10% of the approximately 750.000 farms active in Italy in 2015 had the need to request money from usurers. And that the average sum requested amounts to 30.000 euros for an annual total of 2.250.000.000 euros.
For trade and service companies (3,3 million active), it is estimated, approximating downwards, that one in 10 has turned to usurers, with an average loan amount of 15.000 euros for a total of around 5 billion euros .
The loaned capital would therefore be around 37,25 billion euros. To this figure must be added an average interest on loans of 10% per month, i.e. 120% per annum (although it is known that rates are generally much higher), for a capital repaid which adds another 44,7 billion in interest to 37,25 lent, for a total of 81,95 billion euro.
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