Italian businessmen scammed 440M euros in virus tax credits

ROME (AP) — Italian police say dozens of businessmen are accused of cheating the government out of 440 million euros in tax credits that were granted as part of government measures to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Police said 35 people were targeted with arrest warrants, home detention or other restrictive measures and that authorities carried out 80 searches across the country, from Trentino in the north to Sicily in the south.  The Italian government passed a series of measures to try to keep Italian businesses afloat after Italy became the first epicenter of the outbreak in Europe in February 2020 and imposed the first nationwide lockdown and production shutdown in the West.