Lessons from the Mafia

Rosemary Reeve

June 9, 2009

My first month of research has revolved around reading the newspaper….yes life is indeed hard!

One story that sparked my interest in particular (primarily because I have watched the God Father too many times) was in the FT in early May http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b69fdf3a-38d1-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html .

The Italian police have begun a large scale investigation into corruption in the renewables sector, they believe that the Mafia have been offering money and support to local officials in Sicily in return for wind farm construction contracts. Now, the wind farms in question are, unsurprisingly, of poor quality and infact several do not even produce electricity. However I think that a positive message can be gleaned….

Historically the Mafia have capitalised on highly luctrative “industries”; protection rackets in the lemon groves of Palermo, alcohol production and distribution during the prohibition and most recently cocaine. Therefore it seems fair to assume that there is a lot of money to be made in wind and as a result legal farm construction could bolster the manufacturing and construction sector of an economy. Therefore Mr Darling can be safe in the knowledge that his (or our) investment of £525 million was directed at the right sector.