The payments under scrutiny are linked to the Centro Unico Speciale (CUS), which coordinates cooperatives of former prisoners. According to Il Mattino, invoices and employment contracts connected to the CUS have raised questions about whether payments to private citizens and professional firms concealed “packages of votes” ahead of the latest regional elections.
Centre-right representatives are calling for clarity over the CUS and the use of cooperative funds. Il Mattino presents the payments as an alleged vote-buying hypothesis; the available reports do not establish that the CUS payments actually bought votes.
The CUS allegation has emerged alongside the broader Soresa investigation coordinated by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate. In that investigation, Tommaso Casillo, president of Soresa’s board and a former senator, was among those arrested, according to DIRE and Corriere Napoli.
Prosecutors allege that Casillo was involved in arrangements concerning public tenders, including a Soresa tender for hospital stretcher rentals and a municipal waste-management contract. Corriere Napoli values the stretcher-rental tender at approximately €23.8 million and the Somma Vesuviana waste-management tender at approximately €29.6 million.
The investigation involved 13 precautionary measures in total, including nine prison orders and four house arrests, according to DIRE. The reported accusations include corruption and interference with tender procedures.
Those accusations remain investigative allegations, not final convictions. The available reports do not identify every person, cooperative, invoice or payment amount connected to the vote-buying hypothesis, and they do not establish the subsequent judicial status of every person named.
