05/11/2013 Spotlight

What investors didn't know is that in March or beat deposits would be

divided. They must have received up to 15

million euros for promoting a few glossy brochures. Fit Simmons made

millions. Buyers like Russian lost out. The share also went to the

Mafia and the Italian police have been watching every step of the way.

In March, Italian police seized the jewel of the sea as part of an

anti-Mafia operation. Over a dozen suspected Mafia members were

arrested. Harry Fitzsimons and his business partner, Antonio Velardo,

had become wanted men. I wanted to find out more. I travelled to the

tip of southern Italy, home to jewel of the sea.

For investors, this was to be their place in the sun. But the region is

also home to a deadly Mafia gang. I am heading out now to the site of

jewel of the sea. We have an unmarked police escort to get us out

here. This is the role that many of the investors from Northern Ireland

would have travelled on when they were checking on the progress of

their apartments. Today, jewel of the sea stands derelict and

unfinished. The VFI marketing brochure said, this is where you

start to live the dream. Jewel of the sea was to be a 5-star

residential complex, with plans for a restaurant, beach bar, a clubhouse

with cabaret, swimming pools, tennis courts, the list went on. There are

even plans for a golf course in the hills. And in the brochure, Antonio

Velardo and Harry Fitzsimons signed off with a particular line. Now it

is not just a dream. Many buyers have been left out of pocket after

years of construction delays and problems with planning permission.

Roisin Adams, like other Northern Ireland investors, will be paying

the price for her decision for years. Without VFI and Harry

Fitzsimons, we would not have invested money in Italy. So I would

put the blame squarely at the door of Harry Fitzsimons. This is Roisin

Adams the site with the man Harry Fitzsimons introduced as the

developer, Antonio. She was, in fact, meeting with the mob. We can

reveal this man is a senior member of a Mafia gang. UC, he had a sign

of the rank. Probably he started his career in the 1980s to join the rank

of gospel. Quite -- It is actually quite scary and frightening to think

that we were out there and had dealings with him.

This part of Italy is riddled with organised crime gangs. The most

famous Mafia is the Cosa Nostra, based in Sicily. But here in

Calabria, the Mafia goes by another name. They are Europe's biggest

cocaine traffickers, and there are drugs and extortion businesses worth

billions of euro. They are extremely dangerous and they are also

extremely rich. In the 1990s, they essentially took over from Carson

Nostra as the main business partner of South American drug cartels. --

Cosa Nostra. That has given them enormous resources. That needs to be

laundered. I would discover that this region is said to labour under

the shadow of a Mafia that controls vast territory and the economy. In

this area, large numbers of businesses struggle. Yet Harry

Fitzsimons's company flourished. Extortion here is right. Few speak

out. I met one restaurant owner who took a stand.

He agreed to let police capture his evidence the moment when a gang

member came to collect his protection money. He told me why.

Here, few escape the attentions of the gangs. Despite this, Harry

Fitzsimons went from strength to strength, ringing tens of millions

of euro into the area through this marketing of tourist developments.

But police feared the gang were behind the scenes, using the

construction of the resorts to hide their money. They took a closer

look. Those investigating the business of the Mafia face a

struggle. Here, bombproof bunker 's pass for a state buildings. This man

is one of Italy's most high-profile anti-Mafia investigators. This is

him in July with the man facing charges for being the biggest

cocaine trafficker in the world. He was captured in Colombia and brought

to Italian police custody. He has become the face in the fight

against the Mafia. A permanent bodyguard accompanies him at all

times. He agreed to an exclusive interview.

In 2008, police launched a major covert operation. Senior Mafia

targets were put under surveillance. By the time this award was

collected, they had been under regular surveillance for over six

months. We have got a big problem. Police say they eavesdropped as

Antonio boasted of his new-found wealth. He had picked up a new

Ferrari and taken in 8.5 million euros in one week and was sitting

on 40 million euros in the bank. We were hearing about money, money,

money, coming from everywhere. Police also said that Fitzsimmons

could leave the authorities to them, yet it was Antonia's movement of

money that drew suspicion. -- Antonio's. You really have to

understand how much he knows about what he is doing. I will tell you

in Italian because in English, I cannot translate correctly.

BFI was expanding. -- would be if I was expanding, but was so -- but so

was the Italian police investigation. Italian police

uncovered bank account in Italy, Ireland, Tunisia and Switzerland,

and insider also tell police that property companies all across the

Calabria and coast were operated by fake directors. They were actually

operated by Antonio and Harry Fitzsimmons. Staff were instructed

to delete financial records from company computers. In March police

made their move and seized the development. Antonio was arrested

along with the number of other suspects. Police were convinced it

was all just a Mafia front and Antonio and Fitzsimmons knew it.

They knew he was behind everything. Fitzsimmons denies this in the

strongest terms, but intercepted conversations revealed that he and

Antonio did not want to speak openly about their local partners.

The relationships they both enjoyed had begun to come apart.

Police say friends means beat Mafia. -- the Mafia.

Spotlight understands that police believes it their best friend is

the senior Mafia man. Fitzsimmons denies in the strongest

terms that he was ever a part of a Mafia Skene. -- Mathieu Skene --

Mafia schemer. However, the wiretaps prove

different. The surveillance of Paris

Fitzsimmons and Antonio was part of an operation hailed as one of the

most significant against the Mafia here in years. this local

journalists said that the gang had been cut out after taking a risk on

a home soil. Fitzsimmons was harder to get. Here

he is arriving back into Italy in August. An Interpol Red Alert had

picked him up in East Africa. It had been five years since the

Italian authorities first began monitoring the man they say went

into business with the mob. There, they discovered to his IRA

past. Spotlight can reveal that in 2011 the first formal request was

made to authorities here in Northern Ireland and Great Britain

for information on how we fit Simmons. Italian police say it

prompted a lukewarm response until authorities here learnt of the

suspect involved. Italian police said that

authorities in Northern Ireland told them that Fitzsimmons was seen

as a money launderer for the IRA. Harry Fitzsimmons says he never

laundered money for the IRA and he has never laundered money for any

organisation. It seemed that Harry Fitzsimmons's

past had caught up with him. Harry feeds him and says it is against

his believes that to be involved in money-laundering or any other

organised crime, but Spotlight understands that Harry Fitzsimmons

was considered by senior security personnel to be a leading member of

the Provisional IRA's finance department from the early 1980s and

was under surveillance for being involved at all levels of money

laundering. Spotlight spoke to a former Special Branch officer who

had been detailed to follow Fitzsimmons in the early 1980s. He

was the first target I had that was purely on finance. We were put on

to him on a full-time basis. He was there any meeting top people. He

was not meeting gunmen and bombers and so. He was meeting the top

echelons of the IRA. It was the first time I ever worked against a

target of that sort of quality, if you like, that seniority in the

Provisional movement. Harry Fitzsimmons was also a name to

Garda authorities in the republic. Spotlight understands that the

Criminal assets Bureau in the late 1990s assisted with an

investigation into his bank accounts. They, like the PSNI, are

assisting Italian police with their inquiries. The PSNI would not

confirm what information they provided to the Italian authorities,

but they did say that Harry Fitzsimmons was on the radar of the

RUC for what they described as a fairly substantial amount of time

at various points in the 1970s into the 1990s. Sources said that Harry

Fitzsimmons was a top IRA man and a prominent West Belfast republican,

but when asked to comment, Sinn Fein would only say he has no

connection with the party. This man is a financial crime investigator

who was involved in a number of PSNI investigations. He says

protecting the finance operation was paramount for the IRA. The IRA

from its conception has laundered money. They have significant

control of their finances. If you breach of the organisation, they

will kill you. Harry Fitzsimmons declined to be interviewed for this

programme, but there was another person we wanted to speak to.

Harry's former Italian business partner. He was last seen in April

when detained briefly in Belize with 20,000 undeclared US dollars

on board a yacht. Today he is understood to be a fugitive, but

Spotlight tracked him down and he agreed to speak via a Skype video

call. Why do think the Italian authorities want to speak to you

and your business partner about money laundering? They don't want

to speak to us, they just want to put us in jail. He says the money

trail is totally transparent. It all came from genuine investors.

He even maintains that Italian police made the allegations of IRA

money-laundering just for the publicity.

But with many millions paid out by investors, questions remain on

where the money ultimately went. Where is the money now, Antonio?

But the only shareholders were Antonio and Harry. You paid your

sales of 4 million euros dividend. In fact, we can reveal that 6.5

million euros in total was tracked by Italian police to their company

in Cyprus. Police have also attract funds to a Swiss bank account and

say that in the 2010 tax period, the company had an undisclosed

income of 11.5 euro. Now, over a dozen companies that are part of

the network had been seized. Many are just a smokescreen. Indeed,

when Spotlight contacted the Mauritius based director of the

company, he said he knew nothing about it. From his prison in Rome,

Harry Fitzsimmons is understood to be keeping his silence.

The European Union police force normally would not comment on an

ongoing investigation, but told us that it was aware of individuals

linked to the IRA have engaged with the Italian gang to conceal assets

in Calabria. Harry Fitzsimmons intends to contest the charges to

the Italian courts, but says he has still not been interviewed by a

prosecutor awfully presented with the case against him. He expects to

go on trial in the coming year. It could be a long process. The

average length of a criminal case in Italy is four years and nine

months and often defendants incompetent it -- in complicated

cases can end up in this strange legal half life until a definitive

verdict is reached. The full picture of what really happened in

Italy remains a mystery. There has been limited compensation paid to

the investors who will pay for homes they will never have for

years to come. If you ever met Harry Fitzsimmons, what would you

ask him? I just want asking where is my money? What did you do with

my money and can I have it back? Local suspects in this major Mafia

money-laundering case are due to face trial. Harry Fitzsimmons is on

a 23 away lockdown after threats from other prisoners. He says he

has not been allowed contact with his family and he has not have

access to adequate medical care. He continues to contest the charges

and fight for his freedom.