Fake money. From forgers to counterfeiting companies (1994)

In 1992, the Anti-Counterfeiting Unit (NOAM) of the Carabinieri was set up in Italy and is the most recent instrument in the fight against counterfeiting in Italy. Real criminal enterprises are increasingly managing the new printing technologies available and the business that they enable. One of the most significant characteristics of the counterfeiting enterprise is its specialisation in the types and denominations of counterfeit banknotes that it produces and puts into circulation. Of particular relevance for the definition of the counterfeiting phenomenon in Italy is the data on criminal proceedings initiated for offences relating to counterfeiting. However, without doubt, the most insidious form of counterfeiting of non-monetary values carried out in recent years is that which has concerned Government securities. The victims of forged government bonds are generally the banks, although other players in the economy are not immune. Thus, one of the perfect forms of welding and osmosis between that part of the criminal world dedicated to business and that part of the business world that assumes criminal behaviour and physiognomy takes place around the forged “Government bonds” enterprise.