Loans with 200% interest: expired forfeiture of usury

A maxi trick of usury that offered interest rates of 200% on the initial sum. This was discovered by the carabinieri of Limbiate, in the province of Monza-Brianza. The loans were granted for the benefit of people in economic difficulty. Except then asking, on the amount lent, huge interest. For this reason, the Carabinieri arrested 5 people after a long investigation that began in 2019. The testimony of one of the victims, a small entrepreneur from Bollate, is fundamental.

The carabinieri’s investigations began in 2019, following a search of an apartment in Limbiate inhabited by a few families of Libyan origin. With the arrival of the Arma soldiers, large sums of money and a few Rolex watches began to fly from the balconies. A rather clumsy attempt to get rid of items and cash that could compromise suspects. During the search, 50,000 euros were found, post-dated bank checks for around 5,000 euros, jewelry and watches from brands such as Rolex, Tag Heuer, Janvier. For a total value of about 30 thousand euros. The result, according to investigators, of illicit products acquired by usury.

200% ready: at least ten victims

The investigations thus made it possible to identify at least ten victims of wear. All related to each other and attributable to the same loan sharks. In fact, it was people who had accumulated debt for personal problems, for addiction problems or for professional difficulties, who turned to loan sharks. A small entrepreneur, who fell into serious economic difficulties due to a cocaine addiction and a separation, came forward to file a complaint. And a 58-year-old Bollate who in the summer of 2021 had seen clan retaliation even involving his wife.

The man would have received in December 2020 a loan of 40 thousand euros against a reimbursement of 90 thousand euros in monthly installments of 2 thousand euros. A 22-year-old young man who had recounted his nightmare 7 years earlier would also end up in the endless tunnel of attrition. For a loan of 700 euros he had been forced to contract others with different subjects in order to pay the installments. “Once again the report of the victims was decisive, the starting point for the start of the Carabinieri’s investigations” conclude the Carabinieri in a note.