How a hacking gang held Italys political elites to ransom POLITICO
pWiretaps and arrest warrants reveal the intricate plot to build a database of highlevel secrets and blackmail Italys rich and powerfulppppBy ANTOANETA ROUSSI and HANNAH ROBERTSin MilanppIllustrations by Gregori Saavedra for POLITICOppAI generated TexttospeechppNothing about the sandcolored façade of the palazzo tucked behind Milans Duomo cathedral suggested that inside it a team of computer engineers were building a database to gather private and damaging information about Italys political elite and use it to try to control them ppThe platform called Beyond pulled together hundreds of thousands of records from state databases including flagged financial transactions and criminal investigations to create detailed profiles on politicians business leaders and other prominent figures ppPolice wiretaps recorded someone they identified as Samuele Calamucci allegedly the technical mastermind of the group boasting that the dossiers gave them the power to screw over all of Italy ppThe operation collapsed in fall 2024 when a twoyear investigation culminated in the arrests of four people with a further 60 questioned The alleged ringleaders have denied ever directly accessing state databases while lowerlevel operatives maintain they only conducted opensource searches and believed their actions were legal Police files indicate that key suspects claimed they were operating with the tacit approval of the Italian state ppAfter months of questioning and plea bargaining 15 of the accused are set to enter their pleas at the first court hearing in October ppThe disclosures were shocking not only because of the confidentiality of the data but also the highprofile nature of the targets which included former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Ignazio La Russa cofounder of the ruling Brothers of Italy party and president of the Senate ppThe scandal underscores a novel reality that in the digital era privacy is a relic While dossiers and kompromat have long been tools of political warfare hackers today commanded by the highest bidder can access information to exploit decisionmakers weaknesses from private indiscretions to financial vulnerabilities The result is a political and business class highly exposed to external pressures heightening fears about the resilience of democratic institutions in an era where data is both power and liability ppPOLITICO obtained thousands of pages of police wiretap transcripts and arrest warrants and spoke with alleged perpetrators their victims and officials investigating the scheme Together the documents and interviews reveal an intricate plot to build a database filled with confidential and compromising data and a business plan to exploit it for both legal and illegal means ppOn the surface the group presented itself as a corporate intelligence firm courting highprofile clients by claiming expertise in resolving complex risk management issues such as commercial fraud corruption and infiltration by organized crime ppProsecutors accuse the gang of compiling damaging dossiers by illegally accessing phones computers and state databases containing information ranging from tax records to criminal convictions The data could be used to pressure and threaten victims or fed to journalists to discredit them ppThe alleged perpetrators include a former star police investigator the top manager of Milans trade fair complex and several cybersecurity experts prominent in Italys tech scene All have denied wrongdoing ppWhen the gang first drew the attention of investigators in the summer of 2022 it was almost by accident ppPolice were tracking a northern Italian gangster when he arranged a meeting with retired police inspector Carmine Gallo at a coffee bar in downtown Milan Gallo a veteran in the fight against organized crime was a familiar face in Italys law enforcement circles The meeting raised suspicions and authorities put Gallo under surveillance and inadvertently uncovered the gangs wider operations ppGallo who died in March 2025 was a towering figure in Italian law enforcement He helped solve highprofile cases such as the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci carried out by the fashion moguls exwife Patrizia Reggiani and her clairvoyant and the 1997 kidnapping of Milanese businesswoman Alessandra Sgarella by the ndrangheta organized crime syndicate ppYet Gallos career was not without controversy Over four decades he cultivated ties to organized crime networks and faced repeated investigations for overstepping legal boundaries He ultimately received a twoyear suspended sentence for sharing official secrets and assisting criminals ppWhen he retired from the force in 2018 Gallo illegally carted off investigative material such as transcripts of interviews with moles mafia family trees and photofits prosecutors documents show His modus operandi was to tell municipal employees to get a coffee and come back in half an hour while he photographed documents he boasted in wiretaps ppStill Gallos work ethic remained relentless In 2019 he cofounded Equalize the IT company that hosted the Beyond database with his business partner Enrico Pazzali presenting the firm as a corporate risk intelligence company ppGallos years as a police officer gave him a unique advantage He could leverage relationships with former colleagues in law enforcement and intelligence to get them to carry out illegal searches on his behalf Some of the information he obtained was then repackaged as reputational dossiers for clients commanding fees of up to 15000 ppGallo also cashed in his influence for favors such as procuring passports for friends and acquaintances Investigators recorded conversations in which he bragged of sourcing a passport for a convicted mafioso under investigation for kidnapping who planned to flee to the United Arab Emirates ppThe supercopturnedsupercriminal claimed that Equalize had a full overview of Italian criminal operations extending even to countries like Australia and Vietnam ppWhen investigators raided the groups headquarters they found thousands of files and dossiers spanning decades of Italian criminal and political history The hackers even claimed to have as part of what they called their infinite archive video evidence of the late Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis socalled bunga bunga parties which investigators called a blackmail tool of the highest value ppGallos sudden death of a heart attack six months into the investigation stirred unease among prosecutors They noted that while an initial autopsy found no signs of trauma or injection the absence of such evidence does not necessarily rule out interference Investigators have ordered toxicology tests ppGallos collaborator Pazzalli a wellknown businessman who headed Milans prestigious Fondazione Fiera Milano the countrys largest exhibition center was Equalizes alleged frontman ppPazzali through his lawyer declined to comment to POLITICO about the allegations ppThe Fiera a magnet for money and power made Pazzali a heavy hitter in Milanese circles Having built a successful career across IT energy and other sectors and boasting a full head of steely gray hair he was known to some by the nickname Zio Bello or handsome uncle ppPazzali cultivated close ties to rightwing politicians including Attilio Fontana president of the Lombardy region and maintained a close association with highlevel intelligence officials He would meet clients in a chauffeurdriven black Tesla X complete with a blue flashing light on the roof the kind typically reserved for highranking officials ppSince 2019 Pazzali held a 95 percent stake in Equalize If Gallos role was sourcing confidential information Pazzalis was winning highprofile clients the prosecutors allege Leveraging his reputation and political connections he helped secure business from banks industrial conglomerates multinationals and international law firms including pasta giant Barilla the Italian subsidiary of Heineken and energy powerhouse Eni ppDocuments show that Eni paid Equalize 377000 Roberto Albini a spokesperson for the energy giant told POLITICO that the firm had commissioned Equalize to support its strategy and defense in the context of several criminal and civil cases He added that Eni was not aware of any illegal activity by the company ppMarlous den Bieman corporate communications manager for Heineken said the brewer had ceased all collaboration with Equalize and is actively cooperating with authorities in their investigation of the companys practices ppBarilla declined to comment ppItalys thirdlargest bank Banca Mediolanum said it had paid 3000 to Equalize to gather more public information regarding a company that could have been the subject of a potential deal managed by our investment bank The bank added Of course we were not aware that Equalize was in general conducting its business also through the adoption of illicit procedures ppThe groups reach extended beyond Italy In February 2023 it was hired by Israeli state intelligence agents in a 1 million operation to trace the financial flows from the accounts of wealthy individuals to the Russian mercenary network Wagner In exchange the Israelis promised to hand over intelligence on the illicit trafficking of Iranian gas through Italy a commodity that they suggested might be of interest to Equalizes client the energy giant Eni ppEqualize rapidly grew into a formidable private investigation operation Police reports noted that Pazzali recognized data as a weapon for enormous economic and reputational gains adding Equalizes raison dêtre is to provide Pazzali with information and dossiers to be used for the achievement of his political and economic aims ppDuring the 2023 election campaign for the presidency of the Lombardy region Pazzali ordered dossiers on close affiliates of former mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti who was challenging his preferred candidate the farright Fontana ppA spokesman for Fontana called the allegation sciencefiction and said nothing was offered to the president of the region he did not ask for anything and he certainly did not pay anything ppIn 2022 Pazzali was in the running to manage Italys 2026 Winter Olympics as chief executive Wiretaps suggested he ordered a dossier on his competitor football club AC Milans Chairman Paolo Scaroni but found nothing on him ppBusiness was booming but Pazzali and Gallo were thinking ahead They had become reliant on cops willing to leak information and those officers could be spooked or caught in the act That was a vulnerability ppThey started to envisage a more sophisticated operation a platform that collated all the data the group had in its possession and could generate the prized dossiers with the click of a button erasing the need for bribes and cutting manpower costs a repository of highlevel secrets that once operational would give Pazzali Gallo and their team unprecedented power in Italy ppPazzali declined to comment on the investigation He is due to plead before a judge at a preliminary hearing in Octoberpp
ppEnter Samuele Calamucci the coding brain of the operation ppCalamucci is from a small town just outside Milan and before he began his career in cybersecurity he was involved in stonemasonry ppUnlike his partners Gallo and Pazzali Calamucci wasnt a known face in the city and he had worked hard to keep it that way He ran his own private investigation firm Mercury Advisor from the same offices as Equalize handling the companys IT operations as an outside contractor ppCalamucci knew his way around Italian government IT systems too In wiretapped conversations he claimed to have helped build the digital infrastructure for Italys National Cybersecurity Agency and to have worked for the secret services Department of Information for Security ppKnown within the gang as the professor Calamuccis role was to recruit and manage a team of 30 to 40 programmers he called the ragazzi the boys ppWith his best recruits he began to build Beyond in 2022 the platform designed to be the digital equivalent of an allseeing eye ppTo populate it Calamucci and his team purchased data from the dark web exploited access through government IT maintenance contracts and siphoned intelligence from state databases whenever they could prosecutors said ppIn one policerecorded conversation Calamucci boasted of a hard drive holding 800000 dossiers Through his lawyer Calamucci declined to comment ppWe all thought the requested reports served the good of the country said one of the hackers granted anonymity to speak freely Ninety percent of the reports carried out were about energy projects which required opensource criminal records or membership in mafia syndicates given that a large portion concerned the South Only 5 percent of the jobs they carried out were for individuals to conduct an analysis of enemies or competitors he added ppThe hackers were also not allowed to know who was coming into Equalizes office from the outside Meetings were held behind closed doors in Gallos office or in conference rooms the hacker told POLITICO explaining that the analysts were unaware of the companys dynamics and the people it associated with ppBeyond gave Pazzali Gallo and their gang a treasure trove of compromising information on political and business figures in a searchable platform Wiretaps indicated the plan was to sell access via subscription to select clients including international law firm Dentons and some of the Big Four consultancies like Deloitte KPMG and EY ppDentons declined to comment Deloitte and EY did not respond to a request for comment Audee Van Winkel senior communication officer for KPMG in Belgium where one of the alleged gang members worked said the consultancy did not have any knowledge or records of KPMG in Belgium working with the platform pp
ppIn Italys sprawling private investigation scene Equalize was a relative newcomer But Gallo Pazzali and their associates had something going for them They were wellconnected ppOne alleged member of the organization Gabriele Pegoraro had worked as an external cybersecurity expert for intelligence services and had previously made headlines as the IT genius who helped capture a fugitive terrorist ppPegoraro said he carried out only lawful operations using publicly available sources and was in the dark about how the information was used ppAccording to wiretaps Calamucci and Gallo had worked with several intelligence agents to provide surveillance to protect criminal informants ppOn one occasion Calamucci explained to a subordinate that the relationship with the secret services was essential to continue running Equalize undisturbed We are mercenaries for Italian intelligence he was heard saying by police listening in on a meeting with foreign agents at his office ppThe services also helped with data searches for the group and created a mask of cover for the gang prosecutors believe A hacker proudly claimed that Equalize had even received computers handed down from Italys foreign intelligence agency while law enforcement watched from bugs planted in the ceiling pp
ppIn October 2024 the music stopped ppProsecutors placed four of the alleged gang members including Gallo and Calamucci under house arrest and another 60 people under investigation They brought forward charges including conspiracy to hack corruption illegal accessing of data and the violation of official secrets ppJust as the Stasi destroyed the lives of so many people using a mixture of fabricated and collected information so did these guys said Leonida Reitano an Italian opensource investigator who studied the case They collected sensitive information including medical reports and used it to compromise their targets ppNews of what the gang had done dropped like a bombshell on Italys political class Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters at the time that the affair was unacceptable while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi warned the parliament that the hackers were altering the rules of democracy ppPrime Minister Renzi warned of a deeper political risk associated with the gang It is clear that Equalize are very close to the leaders of the rightwing parties and intended to build a powerful organization although it is not yet certain how deep an impact they had he told POLITICO Renzi is seeking damages as a civil plaintiff in the eventual criminal trial ppEqualize was liquidated in March and some of the alleged hackers have since taken on legitimate roles within the cybersecurity sector ppThere are many unresolved questions around the case Investigators and observers are still trying to determine the full extent of Equalizes ties to Italian intelligence agencies and whether any clients were aware of or complicit in the methods used to compile sensitive dossiers Interviews with intelligence officials conducted during the investigation were never transcribed and testimony given to a parliamentary committee remains classified Police documents are heavily redacted leaving the identities of key figures and the full scope of the operation unclear ppWhile Equalize is unprecedented in its scale efforts to collect information on political opponents have become an Italian tradition said the political historian Giovanni Orsina Spying and political chicanery during and after the Cold War has damaged democracy and undermined trust in public institutions made worse by a lethargic justice system that can take years if not decades to deliver justice ppIt adds to the perception that Italy is a country in which you can never find the truth Orsina said ppFranco Gabrielli a former director of Italys civil intelligence services warned that even the toughest of sentences are unlikely to put an end to the practice It just increases the costs because if I risk more I charge more he said ppWe must reduce the damage put in place procedures mechanisms he added But unfortunately all over the world even where people earn more there are always black sheep people who are corrupted Its human nature p
ppEnter Samuele Calamucci the coding brain of the operation ppCalamucci is from a small town just outside Milan and before he began his career in cybersecurity he was involved in stonemasonry ppUnlike his partners Gallo and Pazzali Calamucci wasnt a known face in the city and he had worked hard to keep it that way He ran his own private investigation firm Mercury Advisor from the same offices as Equalize handling the companys IT operations as an outside contractor ppCalamucci knew his way around Italian government IT systems too In wiretapped conversations he claimed to have helped build the digital infrastructure for Italys National Cybersecurity Agency and to have worked for the secret services Department of Information for Security ppKnown within the gang as the professor Calamuccis role was to recruit and manage a team of 30 to 40 programmers he called the ragazzi the boys ppWith his best recruits he began to build Beyond in 2022 the platform designed to be the digital equivalent of an allseeing eye ppTo populate it Calamucci and his team purchased data from the dark web exploited access through government IT maintenance contracts and siphoned intelligence from state databases whenever they could prosecutors said ppIn one policerecorded conversation Calamucci boasted of a hard drive holding 800000 dossiers Through his lawyer Calamucci declined to comment ppWe all thought the requested reports served the good of the country said one of the hackers granted anonymity to speak freely Ninety percent of the reports carried out were about energy projects which required opensource criminal records or membership in mafia syndicates given that a large portion concerned the South Only 5 percent of the jobs they carried out were for individuals to conduct an analysis of enemies or competitors he added ppThe hackers were also not allowed to know who was coming into Equalizes office from the outside Meetings were held behind closed doors in Gallos office or in conference rooms the hacker told POLITICO explaining that the analysts were unaware of the companys dynamics and the people it associated with ppBeyond gave Pazzali Gallo and their gang a treasure trove of compromising information on political and business figures in a searchable platform Wiretaps indicated the plan was to sell access via subscription to select clients including international law firm Dentons and some of the Big Four consultancies like Deloitte KPMG and EY ppDentons declined to comment Deloitte and EY did not respond to a request for comment Audee Van Winkel senior communication officer for KPMG in Belgium where one of the alleged gang members worked said the consultancy did not have any knowledge or records of KPMG in Belgium working with the platform pp
ppIn Italys sprawling private investigation scene Equalize was a relative newcomer But Gallo Pazzali and their associates had something going for them They were wellconnected ppOne alleged member of the organization Gabriele Pegoraro had worked as an external cybersecurity expert for intelligence services and had previously made headlines as the IT genius who helped capture a fugitive terrorist ppPegoraro said he carried out only lawful operations using publicly available sources and was in the dark about how the information was used ppAccording to wiretaps Calamucci and Gallo had worked with several intelligence agents to provide surveillance to protect criminal informants ppOn one occasion Calamucci explained to a subordinate that the relationship with the secret services was essential to continue running Equalize undisturbed We are mercenaries for Italian intelligence he was heard saying by police listening in on a meeting with foreign agents at his office ppThe services also helped with data searches for the group and created a mask of cover for the gang prosecutors believe A hacker proudly claimed that Equalize had even received computers handed down from Italys foreign intelligence agency while law enforcement watched from bugs planted in the ceiling pp
ppIn October 2024 the music stopped ppProsecutors placed four of the alleged gang members including Gallo and Calamucci under house arrest and another 60 people under investigation They brought forward charges including conspiracy to hack corruption illegal accessing of data and the violation of official secrets ppJust as the Stasi destroyed the lives of so many people using a mixture of fabricated and collected information so did these guys said Leonida Reitano an Italian opensource investigator who studied the case They collected sensitive information including medical reports and used it to compromise their targets ppNews of what the gang had done dropped like a bombshell on Italys political class Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters at the time that the affair was unacceptable while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi warned the parliament that the hackers were altering the rules of democracy ppPrime Minister Renzi warned of a deeper political risk associated with the gang It is clear that Equalize are very close to the leaders of the rightwing parties and intended to build a powerful organization although it is not yet certain how deep an impact they had he told POLITICO Renzi is seeking damages as a civil plaintiff in the eventual criminal trial ppEqualize was liquidated in March and some of the alleged hackers have since taken on legitimate roles within the cybersecurity sector ppThere are many unresolved questions around the case Investigators and observers are still trying to determine the full extent of Equalizes ties to Italian intelligence agencies and whether any clients were aware of or complicit in the methods used to compile sensitive dossiers Interviews with intelligence officials conducted during the investigation were never transcribed and testimony given to a parliamentary committee remains classified Police documents are heavily redacted leaving the identities of key figures and the full scope of the operation unclear ppWhile Equalize is unprecedented in its scale efforts to collect information on political opponents have become an Italian tradition said the political historian Giovanni Orsina Spying and political chicanery during and after the Cold War has damaged democracy and undermined trust in public institutions made worse by a lethargic justice system that can take years if not decades to deliver justice ppIt adds to the perception that Italy is a country in which you can never find the truth Orsina said ppFranco Gabrielli a former director of Italys civil intelligence services warned that even the toughest of sentences are unlikely to put an end to the practice It just increases the costs because if I risk more I charge more he said ppWe must reduce the damage put in place procedures mechanisms he added But unfortunately all over the world even where people earn more there are always black sheep people who are corrupted Its human nature p
