Vincenzo Maruccio is an Italian politician who’s been arrested for allegedly ripping off a cool €1,000,000 from his Italian Values political party funds.
Maruccio faces charges of embezzlement. And just what was this ex-regional politician doing with all this lovely cash? Wasting a large chunk of it on slot machines, would you believe. Maybe he was going to donate his winnings to a worthy cause? Then again, maybe not.
Here, for those who understand Italian is a video of lawyer Maruccio, age 34, pretending to be a politician:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/embed/R5a7EMlPqQ4[/youtube]
Maruccio is reported to have frittered away as much as €300,000 on Italy’s video poker slot machines and had even earned himself the reputation as a big league gambler, even if he did lose around €100,000.

Making matters even more roguish, the political party Vincenzo Maruccio belonged to, the IdV, supposedly stands for honesty and transparency. It does not look as the arrested gambler/lawyer/politician was all too honest. As for transparent, when questioned about the missing party cash, he claimed he’d spent it on party activities, only he could not find any documentation to justify his wild spending.

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Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Investigators are attempting to understand exactly where the other €700,000 Maruccio apparently appropriated ended up. The gambling addicted ex-Councillor is reported to be cooperating with the cops.
Italy’s political parties receive finance from Italy’s tax payers, so the honorable Mr Maruccio was allegedly indirectly stealing from the pockets of Italians.
Vincenzo Maruccio earns the title of Italian rogue of the week for pretending to be all honest and decent when in reality, he was anything but.
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Photograph by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza financial police.