Die achte Todsünde: Toskana-Karussell (2002)

Pietro Angelotti, who celebrated his 75th birthday in April, was harassed by motorcyclists in an alley and later found dead. He had turned his father’s small electrical installation business into a major electronics company. He supported his hometown of Pisa with generous donations. The sale of his company to Mario Sforza in May of this year was surprising and puzzling, since it had always been said that his older daughter Rosa would take over the company. But now it is in the hands of a man as controversial as Sforza, who is also a client of Dottore Vieri, the most powerful lawyer in the region. Giuseppe Mantaldo, from the City of Pisa’s tax office, is summoned to his boss, Carlo Rosario, who makes it clear that Mario Sforza’s claim against the tax office for a refund of input VAT must be met immediately. He dismisses Mantaldo’s objections that the matter still needs clarification and makes an indirect threat. When Mantaldo then tries to file a complaint against his department head with the Guardia di Finanza, they fob him off. When Mantaldo brings up Angelotti’s death—Angelotti had been his friend—Major Ruscio tells him it was an accident, period! And surely he knows about Dottore Vieri’s influence. Ruscio then unexpectedly advises him to contact the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, in Brussels, which deals with cases like this. But he must keep Ruscio’s name out of it; no one must find out. Mantaldo calls OLAF and, when asked, says that the company’s managing director has reportedly been a German named Ritschel for the past few weeks. Pierre Schmidt-Alphand and Marion Hansen of OLAF take on the case. They discover that Ritschel had already come to the authorities’ attention in Spain for subsidy fraud, and that proceedings against him were pending with the Hanover public prosecutor’s office. A conversation with prosecutor Arnold brings further crimes by Ritschel to light and reveals that he disappears as quickly as he turns up. Hansen and Schmidt-Alphand travel to Pisa and want to know how Ritschel came to be managing director of the Angelotti company. Rosario, Hansen and Schmidt-Alphand’s contact, acts as though everything is in order. Hansen wants to know where the Angelotti company gets its mobile phones, since the findings so far indicate that they are not bought directly from the Swedish manufacturer. One of Rosario’s employees says the phones come from a wholesaler in Verona, but that company has since gone bankrupt. Rosario is uncooperative and rejects almost every suggestion, knowing that OLAF employees have little authority. Standing by the open door, Mantaldo has overheard the conversation. Hansen asks her organization to arrange a private meeting with Giuseppe Mantaldo because she noticed the looks exchanged between Rosario and Mantaldo when he brought in the file. At their meeting, he confirms to Hansen that Ritschel is merely a lackey of the new owner, Sforza. Hansen also speaks with Carabinieri officer Nester, who explains that Ritschel is not a plausible suspect in Angelotti’s murder—he is too cowardly for that. Shortly before his death, Sforza bought Angelotti’s company from him for a pittance; he had an interest in his death. But the case against him was dropped because his lawyer, Vieri, is a man with enormous influence in the region. They know that Sforza has stakes in various companies and arranges deals that are profitable for him, lately also involving mobile phones and CPUs, but above all weapons, drugs, and women. Nester shows her a photograph of a man in a Ferrari, known by the name “Margolius.” The car has Hanover license plates. When she asks, prosecutor Arnold tells Hansen that Margolius can often be found at a boxing club on the outskirts of Hanover. She goes there and speaks with him without revealing her true identity. Shortly afterward, she meets with prosecutor Arnold and Dr. Ellwein to share what she has learned. Arnold jumps up and points to a “carousel” set in motion by a jilted lover, who had handed them revealing documents. Careful investigative work uncovered deals conducted between Belgium, Holland, Austria, Denmark, and Germany, in which mobile phones were moved from one country to another either physically or only on paper. They now estimate the damage at at least 350 million euros, which the gang has pocketed. The team handling the cases consists of two prosecutors and six tax investigators. It is difficult to coordinate officials from all the countries involved, but they have managed to agree on a date with everyone. They plan to raid everywhere two weeks from today. Further investigations reveal that the company Croce in Verona buys mobile phones in Sweden and resells them to the Angelotti company in Pisa. From there, they are sold on again and eventually distributed to all the countries that make up the carousel, whose circuit closes with Margolius in Hanover. “If we can prove that Margolius is actually in cahoots with those people down there,” the prosecutor says, “then we can charge them all as members of a criminal organization, and our carousel will finally have a name: the ‘Tuscany Carousel.’” With his friend, journalist David Bradley, Hansen talks through how these deals work. The enormous profits come from the different VAT rules within the European Community and from the fact that, once the companies have made their hefty profits, they are not kept in operation; instead, a new company is set up elsewhere. The European Community loses around 60 billion euros to fraud every year, Hansen explains—more than half the money the Community can spend in a year. Moreover, a system like this drives small, honest dealers into bankruptcy because they can no longer compete. Bradley wants to write about it. Arnold and Ellwein have traveled to Brussels, where the details of the raids are reviewed once more. Arnold assures them that they are certain Ritschel will talk to save his own skin, triggering a chain reaction. They intend to arrest Ritschel for human trafficking two days before the raids; a corresponding arrest warrant is still in force. A little later, Arnold and Hansen watch through binoculars as Ritschel, Sforza, Vieri, and tax office chief Rosario confer on a yacht. Before Ritschel can be arrested, he is found dead, a wire noose around his neck. Major Ruscio wants to speak with Arnold and Hansen. The question now is whether there was a leak in the “Tuscany Commission.” On the day of the raids, numerous arrests are made simultaneously in all the countries involved, and evidence is seized. Hansen interrogates Jörg Margolius, while Arnold and Ellwein question his chief financial officer, Zeise. They skillfully play the two against each other and make them understand what they may be facing. Zeise is not really conscious of having done anything wrong; he has made up reasons to justify his actions. In television reports, each country highlights its own contribution to the arrests. The film ends with Mantaldo’s dog being lured into a narrow alley where motorcyclists are riding around. By the time he notices the dog is missing, it is too late: the dog is lying dead in the alley. Tears run down his face as he kneels beside the faithful animal.