I’m continuing to publish some questions and answers from the book "Intervista su Tangentopoli" published by Laterza and edited by Giovanni Valentini.

GV: So false accounting became for you the key of the problem….
ADP: When an entrepreneur hands over a wad of money to a public official it’s not his own money. It’s not from his own pocket. As much as he pulls out, that amount is coming from the company. If a bribe is to be added to a contract in which a consortium of companies are involved, the entrepreneur has to get the money from all the members of the association. There is thus a fraudulent activity of finding and collecting the funds for ends other than the normal ones of the company: so to be clear, the bribes, cannot be anything other than from slush funds.

GV: However, usually these funds are hidden in the company accounts. What system is used for finding the bribes?
ADP: That’s true. Usually the formal documentation is correct. The invoice for consultancy from Giovanni or Nicola is correct. The invoice for a false purchase is correct. However what’s needed is to see if there’s the content. If the amount paid corresponds to work done, a service or a product supplied.

GV: How did you discover this?
ADP: I thought: Let’s go to the enterprises that are the most representative, the ones that deal with the Public Administration and operate abroad where they carry out their activity off-shore so as not to leave a trace in Italy. So I chose the biggest Italian companies of this type and I went with my police to look at all the details of the accounts and the income tax declarations. Then I entered the data into computer systems. It was meticulous work carried out in the registers of companies, The Chambers of Commerce and the tax offices.