Police seized €1.3 billion worth of Campari shares for alleged tax evasion

Shares worth 1.3 billion euros (£1.1 billion; $1.5 billion) have been seized from the company that controls the maker of Campari over alleged tax evasion, Italian police said.

Officials ordered the seizure of Campari Group shares from Luxembourg-based Lagfin as part of a year-long investigation into how it absorbed its Italian arm.

He is accused of not paying an amount similar to that of the forfeited shares as taxes during this merger. The company previously said it had always met its tax obligations.

Campari, which also makes alcohol brands including Aperol, Grand Marnier and Courvoisier, said neither it nor its subsidiaries were involved in the case.

However, the chairman, Luka Garavoglia, is among those under investigation, local media reported.

The BBC has approached Lagfin, which owns more than 50% of Campari’s shares and has 80% of the voting rights, for comment.

The company previously said in a statement released about the investigation last year that it had “always met its tax obligations with the utmost scrupulousness in all jurisdictions in which it operates” and considered any allegations to the contrary to be “without any basis”.

The Milan prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the company last year. The financial police said on Friday that it had allegedly discovered 5.3 billion euros of undeclared capital gains between 2018 and 2020 on which it had not paid the so-called “exit tax” imposed on companies that move their headquarters abroad.

He is also accused of transferring his Italian assets to foreign ownership solely for tax purposes, according to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

Mr Garavoglia, the billionaire who inherited ownership of Campari from his late mother, is involved along with Giovanni Berto, head of Campari’s Italian branch, local media reported.

One of the world’s largest spirits producers, Campari, is valued at around 7 billion euros on the Milan Stock Exchange.

The company’s roots date back to 1860, when Gaspare Campari’s homemade bitter liqueur became a popular drink among patrons of his bar in Milan.

It became so successful that in 1904 his family began producing it commercially, and from 1990 onwards the company began acquiring other alcohol brands.