ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Enrico Maria Mancuso, Federico Bracalente, Marco Accorroni and Marco Mariotti, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP
Information Sharing Among Police Forces and Administrative Authorities On the administrative side, the Italian Financial Intel - ligence Unit (FIU), established within the Italian Central Bank ( Banca d ’ Italia ), exchanges financial intelligence with foreign counterparts through the Egmont Group network and pursuant to EU law, including suspicious transaction reports relevant to money laundering and terrorist financing (see 3.3 Money Laundering ). Italy’s securities market regulator ( Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa ; CONSOB) participates in the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), while the Banca d’Italia co-operates within the Single Supervisory Mechanism and EU-level AML supervisory colleges. As to law enforcement, the Financial Police ( Guardia di Finanza – GdF) and the National Police ( Polizia di Stato ) co-operate internationally through Europol and Interpol channels. Extradition See 1.6 Extradition and Prohibited Destinations . 1.6 Extradition and Prohibited Destinations Legal Requirements and Procedure for Extradition of Financial Crime Suspects The legal framework governing extradition is primarily based on the applicable bilateral or multilateral treaty between Italy and the foreign state concerned; in the absence of specific treaty provisions, Articles 697– 722-bis ICCP apply on a residual basis. Procedure for extradition Passive extradition (surrender requested by a foreign state) follows three phases. • An initial administrative review by the Minister of Justice, who then forwards the request to the pros - ecutor before the competent court of appeal. • A jurisdictional phase, in which the person sought is identified and questioned with defence coun - sel – if consent is given, the judicial procedure is bypassed; otherwise, the court of appeal decides on the basis of serious indicia of guilt (pre-trial) or an irrevocable conviction consistent with Italy’s
• offences committed abroad by Italian nationals carrying a minimum penalty of three years (with additional procedural conditions for lesser penal - ties, though no such conditions are required for money laundering and corruption-related offences); and • offences committed abroad by foreigners (i) against Italy or an Italian national carrying a minimum pen - alty of one year, provided the defendant is present on Italian territory and the procedural conditions are met; or (ii) against the EU, a foreign state or foreign national carrying a minimum penalty of three years, provided the defendant is present on Italian territory and extradition was not granted or accepted. Note that no procedural condition is required for cor - ruption-related offences. International Letters Rogatory and European Investigation Order International letters rogatory enable one state to request another to perform specific investigative acts (eg, evidence-gathering, search and seizure, witness interviews) (see Legislative Decree No 149/2017 and Articles 723–729-quinquies of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure (ICCP)): • passive rogatory requests (addressed from other states to Italy) are subject to an administrative phase (review by the Minister of Justice), a juris - dictional phase (the district prosecutor must refuse execution in certain cases) and an executive phase; and • active rogatory requests (addressed from Italy to other states) are forwarded by the Minister of Jus - tice, who retains a power to stop them in specific cases. Within EU member states, international letters rogatory have largely been replaced by the European Investiga - tion Order (EIO), applicable to a wide range of investi - gative acts (Legislative Decree No 108/2017). The EIO is transmitted directly between judicial authorities, and transposed and executed according to the law of the requested state.
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