€200 million fraud investigation into Rome’s ‘Madoff’ reaches Malta

Additional reporting by Karl Stagno-Navarra

Italian magistrates investigating an alleged €200 million fraud have requested some 40 boxes of documents of a Malta-based financial firm, Portman International Ltd.

Situated inside Floriana's Europa house, Portman International is being linked to businessman Gianfranco Lande - dubbed by the press as the Madoff of Rome's wealthy district Parioli - and other brokers involved in the fraud scandal.

According to reports, over €200 million in investments by rich professionals and Italian aristocrats were allegedly siphoned off to the British Virgin Islands.

Portman International is a member of the Portman International Group, and is a recognised auditor in Malta and a practicing accountant in the UK & Ireland. PCL International Holdings Ltd is licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority to carry out Trust business.

In March 2011, Rome's attorney general arrested the broker Gianfranco Lande, accused of a €170 million crackdown that involves hundreds of investors. The Guardia di Finanza discovered that tens of millions of euros paid to the Eurofighter consortium by the Austrian government went through the broker's companies.

In Austria, the state prosecutor and an ad hoc parliamentary committee have been looking for evidence that prove the existence of an illegal and secret network that allegedly handled huge amounts of money paid by the Austrian government in 2003 to buy 18 Typhoon fighter jets from the Eurofighter consortium.

WATCH Eurofighter investigation by Italian state TV RAI (in English)