Mafia's new tactics: putting dirty money into clean energy

Energy gets cleaner, but its money gets dirtier; renewable energy suffers more ups and downs; the oil and gas industry balks at a new EPA proposal to cut sulfur levels in gasoline; and our latest interview and premium subscriber offerings … This week all eyes are on the disturbing reality that renewable energy and its lucrative subsidies have become the playthings of the underworld.

Think only Cyprus is where the government goes after "evil", tax-evading oligarchs? Think again. Overnight news broke that the Italian police have seized a record $1.7 billion in cash and property from a single person, a Sicilian "alternative energy" entrepreneur alleged to have close ties to the Mafia. As Bloomberg reports, Italy's anti-Mafia investigators said in a statement today that Vito Nicastri, a 57-year-old native of Alcamo, near Trapani, was placed under surveillance and must remain in Alcamo for three years.

At the end of February I wrote an article about the Mafia’s move into the renewable energy sector; encouraged by the generous subsidies and the legal front that it can offer the family.I mentioned that in 2010 the Italian police had seized assets and property from the Vito ‘The Lord of Wind’ Nicastri. I apologise, but this it appears was wrong.

PEOPLE who live in Calabria and Sicily have average incomes less than half of what their fellow citizens earn in Lombardy and Tyrol. Some, if not most, of that difference can probably be attributed to the pervasive crime and corruption caused by the Mafia in southern Italy. The mob is so persistent because, like all good businessmen, Sicily’s Mafiosi have done a good job of tying their welfare to that of their local communities.

By Dylan Matthews jeirvine asks:

PALERMO, Italy — Inside a midnight-blue BMW, a Sicilian entrepreneur delivered his pitch to the accused mafia boss. A new business was blowing into Italy that could spin wind and sunlight into gold, ensuring the future of the Earth as well as the Cosa Nostra: renewable energy.

The latest record seizure of Mafia-linked assets by Italian police highlights the Italian underworld’s growing reliance on the renewable energy industry to launder money and cream extra profits.

The Silicon Valley venture capital firm will finance early and mid-stage clean energy and information technology companies as well as high-risk 'science experiments.' In a sign that green technology investing is bouncing back, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures said Tuesday that it had raised $1.1 billion to spur development of renewable energy and other clean technologies.