Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari has launched yet another operation targeting the logistics sector, alleging offences related to tax fraud and illegal labour outsourcing against the transport and logistics firm Rhenus Logistics. On the morning of 8 July 2025, the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Milan Guardia di Finanza executed the seizure of assets worth over €43 million. Investigators claim the company benefited from a complex tax evasion scheme involving the use of invoices for non-existent transactions in connection with fictitious subcontracting contracts aimed at supplying labour. This marks the twenty-fifth such operation in the Italian logistics industry.
In a statement, the public prosecutor explained that “by reconstructing the labour supply chain, it emerged that employment relationships with the contracting company (Rhenus) were concealed behind intermediary companies which, in turn, made use of various cooperative companies (acting as labour reservoirs) that systematically failed to pay VAT as well as social security and welfare contributions.”
According to the investigators, Rhenus failed to implement “internal procedures designed to detect – through adequate and effective selection and monitoring activities of its suppliers – the presence of entities which, due to persistent and significant tax irregularities and the absence of an autonomous and adequate organisational structure, clearly lacked the minimum requirements necessary to independently and continuously carry out the contracted services.”
The statement added that, on the morning of 8 July, several searches were being conducted in the provinces of Milan and Naples targeting individuals and legal entities involved, “along with the simultaneous notification of formal notices of investigation, also concerning corporate administrative liability in connection with criminal offences committed by company executives to the benefit of the company itself.” The alleged events are reported to have taken place between 2019 and 2024. The seizure is now pending validation by the preliminary investigations judge.
