Four people were arrested in Italy on Friday, with dozens more under investigation, in connection with an alleged conspiracy that links current and former officials in the country’s security services to a private intelligence agency for the purposes of building illegal dossiers.

The alleged creation of such dossiers has been a growing scandal in Italy, with reported victims including senior politicians, business figures, footballers and the current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who described the practice as “intolerable” and a threat to democracy.

The hacked databases include strategic intelligence held by the police, Italy’s revenue agency and Bankitalia, as reported by RAI News. The data was allegedly sold to Equalize’s customers or used to blackmail businessmen and politicians in a practice that prosecutors said went back to at least 2019, and continued up until March of this year, according to reporting by Reuters.

According to the investigators, Equalize’s clients were typically large companies and law firms that sought to undermine their competition or to influence official decisions to their own advantage.

https://therecord.media/italy-arrests-illegal-dossiers-private-intelligence