ROME - The Italian Finance Police have said that six public officials are under investigation in alleged fraud surrounding 2025’s Giubileo. Of the six arrested, four are public officials from the Municipality of Rome, two work for Astral, and the other two are traffic officers.

 The hypothesis that is driving these investigations is that several auctions for contracts to resurface roads ahead of the grand Jubileo, said to be worth a total of around 100 million euros, were rigged by the alleged payment of bribes by Mirco Pellegrini, a 46-year-old businessman believed to be the “head” of an alleged criminal association.

 As well as searching the Department for Public Work, the Municipality of Rome and the offices of Astral (a company owned by the Province of Lazio and responsible for the road system in Rome,) police have also searched a bank branch accused of opening 170 accounts for Pellegrini’s top hench-men under pseudonyms, whilst knowing exactly who the men behind the accounts really were.

 According to the prosecution, coordinated by Assistant Prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini and Deputy Prosecutor Lorenzo Del Giudice, Pellegrini’s roads were built with cheap bituminous materials which allowed for cost cutting and maximising his profit, according to Il Fatto Quoditiano. Pellegrini is alleged by the prosecution to have bribed employees of the municipality and Astral, “cash” bribes and jobs for their children.

 According to what the investigations have already gathered, Pellegrini also paid off two police traffic officers so that his trucks could drive on the roads without risking fines even though they far exceeded the weight limit for transporting construction materials.

tjpw