:05:00. > :05:01.What investors didn't know is that in March or beat deposits would be
:05:02. > :05:37.divided. They must have received up to 15
:05:38. > :05:46.million euros for promoting a few glossy brochures. Fit Simmons made
:05:47. > :05:53.millions. Buyers like Russian lost out. The share also went to the
:05:54. > :06:05.Mafia and the Italian police have been watching every step of the way.
:06:06. > :06:13.In March, Italian police seized the jewel of the sea as part of an
:06:14. > :06:18.anti-Mafia operation. Over a dozen suspected Mafia members were
:06:19. > :06:21.arrested. Harry Fitzsimons and his business partner, Antonio Velardo,
:06:22. > :06:36.had become wanted men. I wanted to find out more. I travelled to the
:06:37. > :06:46.tip of southern Italy, home to jewel of the sea.
:06:47. > :06:58.For investors, this was to be their place in the sun. But the region is
:06:59. > :07:03.also home to a deadly Mafia gang. I am heading out now to the site of
:07:04. > :07:07.jewel of the sea. We have an unmarked police escort to get us out
:07:08. > :07:10.here. This is the role that many of the investors from Northern Ireland
:07:11. > :07:22.would have travelled on when they were checking on the progress of
:07:23. > :07:26.their apartments. Today, jewel of the sea stands derelict and
:07:27. > :07:30.unfinished. The VFI marketing brochure said, this is where you
:07:31. > :07:35.start to live the dream. Jewel of the sea was to be a 5-star
:07:36. > :07:40.residential complex, with plans for a restaurant, beach bar, a clubhouse
:07:41. > :07:44.with cabaret, swimming pools, tennis courts, the list went on. There are
:07:45. > :07:50.even plans for a golf course in the hills. And in the brochure, Antonio
:07:51. > :08:03.Velardo and Harry Fitzsimons signed off with a particular line. Now it
:08:04. > :08:07.is not just a dream. Many buyers have been left out of pocket after
:08:08. > :08:14.years of construction delays and problems with planning permission.
:08:15. > :08:17.Roisin Adams, like other Northern Ireland investors, will be paying
:08:18. > :08:25.the price for her decision for years. Without VFI and Harry
:08:26. > :08:30.Fitzsimons, we would not have invested money in Italy. So I would
:08:31. > :08:41.put the blame squarely at the door of Harry Fitzsimons. This is Roisin
:08:42. > :08:46.Adams the site with the man Harry Fitzsimons introduced as the
:08:47. > :08:51.developer, Antonio. She was, in fact, meeting with the mob. We can
:08:52. > :09:08.reveal this man is a senior member of a Mafia gang. UC, he had a sign
:09:09. > :09:22.of the rank. Probably he started his career in the 1980s to join the rank
:09:23. > :09:25.of gospel. Quite -- It is actually quite scary and frightening to think
:09:26. > :09:33.that we were out there and had dealings with him.
:09:34. > :09:41.This part of Italy is riddled with organised crime gangs. The most
:09:42. > :09:48.famous Mafia is the Cosa Nostra, based in Sicily. But here in
:09:49. > :09:56.Calabria, the Mafia goes by another name. They are Europe's biggest
:09:57. > :10:02.cocaine traffickers, and there are drugs and extortion businesses worth
:10:03. > :10:09.billions of euro. They are extremely dangerous and they are also
:10:10. > :10:17.extremely rich. In the 1990s, they essentially took over from Carson
:10:18. > :10:25.Nostra as the main business partner of South American drug cartels. --
:10:26. > :10:29.Cosa Nostra. That has given them enormous resources. That needs to be
:10:30. > :10:35.laundered. I would discover that this region is said to labour under
:10:36. > :10:40.the shadow of a Mafia that controls vast territory and the economy. In
:10:41. > :10:47.this area, large numbers of businesses struggle. Yet Harry
:10:48. > :10:52.Fitzsimons's company flourished. Extortion here is right. Few speak
:10:53. > :11:03.out. I met one restaurant owner who took a stand.
:11:04. > :11:06.He agreed to let police capture his evidence the moment when a gang
:11:07. > :11:39.member came to collect his protection money. He told me why.
:11:40. > :11:44.Here, few escape the attentions of the gangs. Despite this, Harry
:11:45. > :11:49.Fitzsimons went from strength to strength, ringing tens of millions
:11:50. > :12:01.of euro into the area through this marketing of tourist developments.
:12:02. > :12:05.But police feared the gang were behind the scenes, using the
:12:06. > :12:13.construction of the resorts to hide their money. They took a closer
:12:14. > :12:19.look. Those investigating the business of the Mafia face a
:12:20. > :12:26.struggle. Here, bombproof bunker 's pass for a state buildings. This man
:12:27. > :12:32.is one of Italy's most high-profile anti-Mafia investigators. This is
:12:33. > :12:37.him in July with the man facing charges for being the biggest
:12:38. > :12:39.cocaine trafficker in the world. He was captured in Colombia and brought
:12:40. > :12:57.to Italian police custody. He has become the face in the fight
:12:58. > :13:01.against the Mafia. A permanent bodyguard accompanies him at all
:13:02. > :13:16.times. He agreed to an exclusive interview.
:13:17. > :13:21.In 2008, police launched a major covert operation. Senior Mafia
:13:22. > :14:04.targets were put under surveillance. By the time this award was
:14:05. > :14:12.collected, they had been under regular surveillance for over six
:14:13. > :14:18.months. We have got a big problem. Police say they eavesdropped as
:14:19. > :14:24.Antonio boasted of his new-found wealth. He had picked up a new
:14:25. > :14:31.Ferrari and taken in 8.5 million euros in one week and was sitting
:14:32. > :14:36.on 40 million euros in the bank. We were hearing about money, money,
:14:37. > :14:40.money, coming from everywhere. Police also said that Fitzsimmons
:14:41. > :14:53.could leave the authorities to them, yet it was Antonia's movement of
:14:54. > :14:59.money that drew suspicion. -- Antonio's. You really have to
:15:00. > :15:06.understand how much he knows about what he is doing. I will tell you
:15:07. > :15:31.in Italian because in English, I cannot translate correctly.
:15:32. > :15:41.BFI was expanding. -- would be if I was expanding, but was so -- but so
:15:42. > :15:49.was the Italian police investigation. Italian police
:15:50. > :15:54.uncovered bank account in Italy, Ireland, Tunisia and Switzerland,
:15:55. > :15:58.and insider also tell police that property companies all across the
:15:59. > :16:10.Calabria and coast were operated by fake directors. They were actually
:16:11. > :16:16.operated by Antonio and Harry Fitzsimmons. Staff were instructed
:16:17. > :16:27.to delete financial records from company computers. In March police
:16:28. > :16:31.made their move and seized the development. Antonio was arrested
:16:32. > :16:39.along with the number of other suspects. Police were convinced it
:16:40. > :16:48.was all just a Mafia front and Antonio and Fitzsimmons knew it.
:16:49. > :16:53.They knew he was behind everything. Fitzsimmons denies this in the
:16:54. > :16:57.strongest terms, but intercepted conversations revealed that he and
:16:58. > :17:04.Antonio did not want to speak openly about their local partners.
:17:05. > :17:15.The relationships they both enjoyed had begun to come apart.
:17:16. > :17:41.Police say friends means beat Mafia. -- the Mafia.
:17:42. > :17:45.Spotlight understands that police believes it their best friend is
:17:46. > :18:04.the senior Mafia man. Fitzsimmons denies in the strongest
:18:05. > :18:14.terms that he was ever a part of a Mafia Skene. -- Mathieu Skene --
:18:15. > :18:18.Mafia schemer. However, the wiretaps prove
:18:19. > :18:31.different. The surveillance of Paris
:18:32. > :18:36.Fitzsimmons and Antonio was part of an operation hailed as one of the
:18:37. > :18:46.most significant against the Mafia here in years. this local
:18:47. > :18:49.journalists said that the gang had been cut out after taking a risk on
:18:50. > :19:26.a home soil. Fitzsimmons was harder to get. Here
:19:27. > :19:30.he is arriving back into Italy in August. An Interpol Red Alert had
:19:31. > :19:34.picked him up in East Africa. It had been five years since the
:19:35. > :19:36.Italian authorities first began monitoring the man they say went
:19:37. > :19:54.into business with the mob. There, they discovered to his IRA
:19:55. > :19:57.past. Spotlight can reveal that in 2011 the first formal request was
:19:58. > :20:02.made to authorities here in Northern Ireland and Great Britain
:20:03. > :20:07.for information on how we fit Simmons. Italian police say it
:20:08. > :20:09.prompted a lukewarm response until authorities here learnt of the
:20:10. > :20:38.suspect involved. Italian police said that
:20:39. > :20:41.authorities in Northern Ireland told them that Fitzsimmons was seen
:20:42. > :21:13.as a money launderer for the IRA. Harry Fitzsimmons says he never
:21:14. > :21:15.laundered money for the IRA and he has never laundered money for any
:21:16. > :21:32.organisation. It seemed that Harry Fitzsimmons's
:21:33. > :21:36.past had caught up with him. Harry feeds him and says it is against
:21:37. > :21:41.his believes that to be involved in money-laundering or any other
:21:42. > :21:46.organised crime, but Spotlight understands that Harry Fitzsimmons
:21:47. > :21:51.was considered by senior security personnel to be a leading member of
:21:52. > :21:55.the Provisional IRA's finance department from the early 1980s and
:21:56. > :22:02.was under surveillance for being involved at all levels of money
:22:03. > :22:07.laundering. Spotlight spoke to a former Special Branch officer who
:22:08. > :22:14.had been detailed to follow Fitzsimmons in the early 1980s. He
:22:15. > :22:19.was the first target I had that was purely on finance. We were put on
:22:20. > :22:25.to him on a full-time basis. He was there any meeting top people. He
:22:26. > :22:32.was not meeting gunmen and bombers and so. He was meeting the top
:22:33. > :22:37.echelons of the IRA. It was the first time I ever worked against a
:22:38. > :22:43.target of that sort of quality, if you like, that seniority in the
:22:44. > :22:47.Provisional movement. Harry Fitzsimmons was also a name to
:22:48. > :22:53.Garda authorities in the republic. Spotlight understands that the
:22:54. > :22:56.Criminal assets Bureau in the late 1990s assisted with an
:22:57. > :23:02.investigation into his bank accounts. They, like the PSNI, are
:23:03. > :23:07.assisting Italian police with their inquiries. The PSNI would not
:23:08. > :23:10.confirm what information they provided to the Italian authorities,
:23:11. > :23:16.but they did say that Harry Fitzsimmons was on the radar of the
:23:17. > :23:21.RUC for what they described as a fairly substantial amount of time
:23:22. > :23:27.at various points in the 1970s into the 1990s. Sources said that Harry
:23:28. > :23:31.Fitzsimmons was a top IRA man and a prominent West Belfast republican,
:23:32. > :23:42.but when asked to comment, Sinn Fein would only say he has no
:23:43. > :23:48.connection with the party. This man is a financial crime investigator
:23:49. > :23:52.who was involved in a number of PSNI investigations. He says
:23:53. > :23:58.protecting the finance operation was paramount for the IRA. The IRA
:23:59. > :24:04.from its conception has laundered money. They have significant
:24:05. > :24:10.control of their finances. If you breach of the organisation, they
:24:11. > :24:13.will kill you. Harry Fitzsimmons declined to be interviewed for this
:24:14. > :24:18.programme, but there was another person we wanted to speak to.
:24:19. > :24:25.Harry's former Italian business partner. He was last seen in April
:24:26. > :24:31.when detained briefly in Belize with 20,000 undeclared US dollars
:24:32. > :24:36.on board a yacht. Today he is understood to be a fugitive, but
:24:37. > :24:42.Spotlight tracked him down and he agreed to speak via a Skype video
:24:43. > :24:45.call. Why do think the Italian authorities want to speak to you
:24:46. > :24:51.and your business partner about money laundering? They don't want
:24:52. > :24:58.to speak to us, they just want to put us in jail. He says the money
:24:59. > :25:11.trail is totally transparent. It all came from genuine investors.
:25:12. > :25:17.He even maintains that Italian police made the allegations of IRA
:25:18. > :25:57.money-laundering just for the publicity.
:25:58. > :26:04.But with many millions paid out by investors, questions remain on
:26:05. > :26:26.where the money ultimately went. Where is the money now, Antonio?
:26:27. > :26:40.But the only shareholders were Antonio and Harry. You paid your
:26:41. > :26:51.sales of 4 million euros dividend. In fact, we can reveal that 6.5
:26:52. > :26:56.million euros in total was tracked by Italian police to their company
:26:57. > :27:01.in Cyprus. Police have also attract funds to a Swiss bank account and
:27:02. > :27:11.say that in the 2010 tax period, the company had an undisclosed
:27:12. > :27:16.income of 11.5 euro. Now, over a dozen companies that are part of
:27:17. > :27:24.the network had been seized. Many are just a smokescreen. Indeed,
:27:25. > :27:28.when Spotlight contacted the Mauritius based director of the
:27:29. > :27:33.company, he said he knew nothing about it. From his prison in Rome,
:27:34. > :28:00.Harry Fitzsimmons is understood to be keeping his silence.
:28:01. > :28:06.The European Union police force normally would not comment on an
:28:07. > :28:13.ongoing investigation, but told us that it was aware of individuals
:28:14. > :28:21.linked to the IRA have engaged with the Italian gang to conceal assets
:28:22. > :28:26.in Calabria. Harry Fitzsimmons intends to contest the charges to
:28:27. > :28:31.the Italian courts, but says he has still not been interviewed by a
:28:32. > :28:35.prosecutor awfully presented with the case against him. He expects to
:28:36. > :28:42.go on trial in the coming year. It could be a long process. The
:28:43. > :28:46.average length of a criminal case in Italy is four years and nine
:28:47. > :28:54.months and often defendants incompetent it -- in complicated
:28:55. > :29:02.cases can end up in this strange legal half life until a definitive
:29:03. > :29:09.verdict is reached. The full picture of what really happened in
:29:10. > :29:15.Italy remains a mystery. There has been limited compensation paid to
:29:16. > :29:21.the investors who will pay for homes they will never have for
:29:22. > :29:26.years to come. If you ever met Harry Fitzsimmons, what would you
:29:27. > :29:36.ask him? I just want asking where is my money? What did you do with
:29:37. > :29:42.my money and can I have it back? Local suspects in this major Mafia
:29:43. > :29:51.money-laundering case are due to face trial. Harry Fitzsimmons is on
:29:52. > :29:57.a 23 away lockdown after threats from other prisoners. He says he
:29:58. > :30:05.has not been allowed contact with his family and he has not have
:30:06. > :30:10.access to adequate medical care. He continues to contest the charges
:30:11. > :30:15.and fight for his freedom.