Dutch beer brewer Heineken and Anglo-Dutch fossil energy company Shell have been linked to a major espionage scandal ongoing in Italy. The Italian company Equalize is accused of stealing and selling tax data and police information on Italian politicians and businessmen, among others, to its customers. Heineken and Shell were among those customers, NRC reports.
On paper, Equalize provides services like business intelligence and reputation management. It conducts research into the reliability of suppliers, the position of competitors, or misconduct by customers’ staff. Under the counter, Equalize also sold confidential data gained from hacking into police systems, the Italian tax authorities’ systems, and the reporting center for suspicious bank transactions, according to the Italian authorities. The company also had informants within Italian government organizations.
Equalizes’ customer database consisted of some 400 names, mainly in the business community. According to the indictment, the main suspects – Equalize employees Carimine Gallo, a former police officer, and IT specialist and hacker Nunzio Calamucci – also did business with agents of the Israeli security service Mossad, representatives of the mafia, and the Vatican.
Heineken-subsidiary Partesa, responsible for sales and distribution in Italy, is also on the customer list. Partesa allegedly paid Equalize at least 30,000 euros to track the movements of eight current and former Partesa employees. Several of them had switched to a competitor in quick succession. According to NRC, Equalize installed illegal spyware on two employees’ phones, among other things.
A Heineken spokesperson told the newspaper that Heineken Italy stopped working with Equalize as soon as the company’s working methods became known. Heineken is actively working with the authorities in their investigation into Equalize.
Shell’s link to Equalize stems from a failed investigation into Shell and ENI bribing Nigerian officials in the purchase of the oil field OPL 245 in 2011. The Italian authorities believe that the energy companies paid over 1 billion dollars in bribes to Nigerian politicians and officials, but could never prove it to the court’s satisfaction. In 2021, all suspects were acquitted.
In October last year, the tables turned in the corruption case when a court in Brescia sentenced two prosecutors to 8 months in prison for failing to submit a document exonerating the oil companies.
According to NRC, tapped conversations in the Equalize investigation may indicate that Equalize illegally gained documents showing that the authorities influenced witnesses in the corruption case. Equalize employee Gallo told the authorities that ENI hired the company to prove that a Nigerian witness had been bribed. Calamucci also said that ENI had asked Equalize to prove that witnesses were corrupt.
Next week, the two convicted prosecutors will appeal their convictions in Milan. They submitted the interrogations of Gallo and Calamucci as evidence.