Investigate 41 people including doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians
Carabinieri NAS – 25 July 2019
Yesterday the Carabinieri of the NAS of Caserta carried out a precautionary custody order, issued by the GIP of the Court of Santa Maria Capua Vetere at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office.
The provision involved 6 people, of whom: one in prison, two under house arrest, two reached by the disqualification measure of relations with the Public Administration, another, finally, by the obligation to report to the Judicial Police.
The six suspects receiving the precautionary measures are involved, in various capacities and with many other subjects deferred in a state of freedom, in a criminal association dedicated to the commission of various scams to the detriment of the National Health Service.
The crimes ascertained by NAS investigators, attributable to the period 2015-2017, are: aggravated criminal association aimed at committing embezzlement, corruption for acts contrary to official duties, ideological falsehood and aggravated fraud.
The complex investigative activity first focused on the head physician of a Clinical Pathology department of a Campania hospital. In fact, the man had met the needs of the private analysis laboratory owned by his wife through the public health facility where he worked. In fact, the suspect unduly misappropriated instrumental assets belonging to the public health facility (facilities, machinery, personnel and chemical reagents), allocating them to his wife's facility.
Both spouses were placed under house arrest for the crime of conspiracy and for various episodes of embezzlement.
The articulated investigation by the men of the NAS of Caserta, also carried out through telephone interceptions, searches, tailings and the acquisition of copious accounting / administrative documentation, brought to light:
- a criminal association made up of some hospital employees who performed an indeterminate series of clinical tests on samples taken from customers of the private laboratory, a structure which, accredited with the regional health service, then also proceeded to request reimbursement of the relative prescription recipes from the competent ASL;
- the unlawful conduct of two representatives of a supplier company, who offered the chief physician and his closest collaborator monetary compensation or stays in the Neapolitan islands, in exchange for the improper attribution of supplies of instrumental and diagnostic goods for the hospital. The supply requests, in fact, were not linked to the real needs of the hospital structure, but decided by the same representatives of the supplier company who articulated the orders by adapting them to the requests made by the two corrupt civil servants. For this reason, the two suppliers were the recipients of an interdiction provision for relations with the Public Administration;
- the bribery of a public official aimed at obtaining the overcoming of a bankruptcy procedure, which led to the issuance of the measure of the obligation to present to the police against a soldier of the Italian Army who had promoted the illegal mediation;
- the theft of medicines and various reagents committed by various employees of the hospital;
- numerous laboratory analyzes carried out to "please" relatives, friends and acquaintances by numerous hospital employees, without payment of the ticket and reservation, in disregard of every minimal rule of good performance of the Public Administration.
- the case of a nurse who, after having carried out the illicit diagnostic checks using improperly instrumentation and reagents of the hospital laboratory, received a monetary compensation for the "service" provided;
- a series of illegitimate removals from the service of an employee who, adopting a series of tricks, after having stamped her entry into service, left the hospital to devote herself to private matters or, at times, did not even appear, affixing a justification of the absence of false medical certificates, following which he went on holiday to seaside resorts and, in one specific case, to attend an international football match.
The entire investigative compendium has therefore made it possible to bring to light the scandalous management of an entire hospital ward, enslaved to strictly personal and private purposes, now clearly pre-eminent with respect to institutional activity, relegated, unfortunately, to being carried out in spare time.
The technical appraisals carried out and the documentary checks carried out by the Carabinieri of the NAS made it possible to demonstrate that at least the 10% of the tests carried out during the investigations did not appear to be connected to any institutional activity, but were attributable to offences.
The tax damage estimated by default is 1,800,000 euros per year.
The former chief physician of the hospital's clinical pathology department ended up under house arrest 
Sant'Anna and San Sebastiano di Caserta, Angelo Costanzo and his wife, Vincenza Scotti, exponent of Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra, arrested in Brazil after decades on the run, on May 26, 2015, and extradited to Italy on March 10, 2016 Six measures issued in all while there are 41 suspects.
A trusted collaborator of Costanzo also ended up in prison, Angelina Grillo, a laboratory technician, still in service, like almost all the other suspects, including some nurses accused of having appropriated medicines and doctors who allegedly asked Costanzo for tests without going through the Cup or the Unique Booking Center, preventing the health facility from collecting the ticket money. The investigations revealed that in the two-year period considered at least the 10% of the exams would have been illegal, not connected to any institutional activity, with tax damage estimated at 1.8 million euros.
Six measures issued in all, while 41 are under investigation, including the former Undersecretary of Health Domenico Zinzi, former deputy and president of the Province of Caserta, for the hypothesis of competition in embezzlement.
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The fight against corruption and malfeasance in healthcare is my priority. We must forcefully face those who speculate on everyone's health!
Today's news is that there are 6 precautionary measures and 41 people under investigation in Caserta: they had the hospital buy machinery and medical material just to get kickbacks from a company from which they even got free holidays in Capri and Ischia.
These disgusting practices must be tackled at their root. For this I want to thank the Carabinieri del Nas and the investigators for this operation!
There is no health without legality!
Giulia Grillo
