Totti Investigated for “Suspicious” Casino Payments

Italy’s financial police are investigating Francesco Totti. After multiple Bank of Italy suspicious transaction reports (STRs) flagged suspected anti-money laundering offenses.

Italy’s La Verità is investigating questionable wire transfers to land-based casinos in London, Monte Carlo, and Las Vegas.

One of the finest soccer players of his generation, Totti played only for Roma and the Italian national team. Er Bimbo de Oro (The Golden Boy) and L’Ottavo Re di Roma are his nicknames in Italy (The Eighth King of Rome).

Ilari Blassi, an Italian model, showgirl, and television personality, is his 17-year-old wife.

Strange Deals

A €80,000 “non-interest-bearing loan” to an elderly resident of Anzio, a beach city in Lazio, Italy, is also under investigation.

According to La Verità, this sum was moved into an account owned by the old woman’s daughter and her husband, a longstanding Totti friend, on the same day.

The husband, an Italian Interior Ministry employee, moved the money to his personal account.

Investigators told La Vertià that the couples’ joint account receives wire transactions from “online betting businesses.”

“An opaque business with counterparties engaged in the online betting sector” deposited €445,000 in transfers and bank checks into the account.

Investigators stated the couple displayed “an evasive and non-cooperative attitude” during questioning, but this did not prove criminal behavior.

Gambling passion

Totti’s €1.3 million payment to the Casino Monte Carlo-affiliated Société financière et d’encaissement (Sfe) is also under investigation. Five checks were made between August 2018 and 2020.

In addition, United London Services Ltd., a company of London’s Les Ambassadeurs casino, and an unknown Las Vegas gaming operator received money.

Totti’s representative told La Verità that these funds supported the former soccer star’s “passion for gambling.”

Investigators had “strong suspicions… regarding the real destination of the money provided to the numerous international casinos.”

Since the Société financière et d’encaissement is also a bank, “it is unclear whether the money provided is intended just for gambling or for another purpose.”