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Milan Escort Probe Turns to Phone Forensics With Players Not Suspects

Because paying adult sex workers is not a crime in Italy, prosecutors focus on the alleged organizers' profits.

Overview

  • The Milan investigation, which led to Monday's house arrests, targets four alleged organizers — Emanuele Buttini, Deborah Ronchi, Alessio Salamone and Luz Luan Amilton Fraga — on suspicion of exploiting prostitution and related offenses.
  • Prosecutors are extracting data from seized phones using a list of roughly 60 to 70 footballer surnames as search keys to verify contacts and meetings, but the athletes are not under criminal investigation.
  • Judges ordered a preventive seizure of more than €1.2 million viewed as illicit proceeds, and investigators are tracing payments that include transfers to Revolut-linked Lithuanian accounts, with nearly €200,000 paid by players to the organizers.
  • Women now being heard as witnesses describe a system that kept at least half of their pay, housed some in a Cinisello Balsamo apartment, and supplied laughing gas in balloons during VIP nights.
  • Next steps include possible witness summons for some players to clarify any paid sexual encounters, while interrogations of the four under house arrest are scheduled for April 27.