Italian police have arrested a woman on suspicion of playing a major role in laundering around 61 million euros (approximately $70 million) embezzled from Caritas Luxembourg.
The 41-year-old suspect was detained in northwestern Rome, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported June 5, in connection with the scandal, which led to the effective dissolution of the Catholic charity founded in 1932.
Fraudsters are believed to have extracted an estimated 61 million euros from the charity in more than 100 transactions of less than 500,000 euros ($579,000) between February and July 2024.
The suspect, identified as Clarissa La Porta, was wanted under a European Arrest Warrant issued by judicial authorities in Luxembourg on suspicion of forging documents, fraud, criminal association, and money laundering.
Investigators allege that she created shell companies and bank accounts in countries including Austria, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden, and falsified accounting and corporate documents to help launder funds embezzled from Caritas Luxembourg. They consider her to be a trusted associate of a leader of an unnamed criminal organization.
La Porta, who is originally from Turin, has not publicly responded to the allegations.
Corriere della Sera said that investigators believed she was preparing to leave for Dubai when Italy’s State Police and Financial Police arrested her at an apartment in Rome’s Trionfale district.
Following the arrest, she was taken to the city’s Rebibbia prison ahead of possible extradition to Luxembourg, a small, prosperous country bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany.
Her detention is the latest twist in a scandal that emerged in July 2024, prompting anger among government officials in Luxembourg and a national debate about oversight of charities receiving state funds.
After Caritas Luxembourg filed a criminal complaint for the misappropriation of funds, the public prosecutor’s office requested the opening of a judicial investigation into suspected forgery, fraud, breach of trust, and money laundering.
The office said in July 2024 that an individual — widely reported to be the chief financial officer — had appeared for questioning and was arrested. The person was later released from custody.
In August 2024, it emerged that two banks had approved tens of millions of euros in loans to the charity while the suspected fraud was occurring.
Also in August 2024, Luxembourg’s public prosecutor’s office said Caritas Luxembourg may have fallen victim to “fake president fraud,” in which a fraudster impersonates a senior figure within a company and demands that employees arrange urgent international payments.
In September 2024, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden denounced what he called “a horrible fraud” and indicated that a new organization would replace Caritas Luxembourg. The charity announced it would be forced to close its overseas aid projects because of the embezzlement scandal.
In October 2024, the newly established non-profit Hellëf um Terrain (Help on the Ground) took over much of Caritas Luxembourg’s work within the country.
Also in October 2024, investigators began to focus on a Bulgarian crime organization suspected of duping the chief financial officer into transferring funds with the help of a fortune teller, who allegedly passed on information that the employee had confided about her workplace.
In January 2025, the public prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of eight suspects after a joint police operation in Bulgaria, France, and Britain. A ninth person, from Bulgaria, was detained later that month.
In July 2025, two men from Bulgaria were given jail sentences for helping to launder money taken from the charity, after they opened bank accounts in Spain and made them available to the fraud scheme’s organizers. The men’s attorney argued that they were “money mules,” or people unwittingly used by criminals to transfer illegally obtained funds.
Also in July 2025, a special parliamentary inquiry into Caritas Luxembourg concluded with a report making 12 recommendations, including improving employee supervision and promoting the professionalization of the charitable sector.
In a July 2025 update, the public prosecutor’s office said: “It must be acknowledged that the vast majority of the assets have disappeared through a combination of money-laundering techniques and a cascade of transfers carried out worldwide, involving increasingly smaller amounts, each subsequently invested in cryptocurrencies.”
“The arrangements put in place to shield the funds embezzled from the [Caritas] Foundation from the authorities point to the existence of a network of professional money launderers, using company incorporation and bank account-opening techniques, primarily through nominees or money mules recruited from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds.”
It added: “Such a network is likely to provide its services to one or more fraudsters seeking to conceal illicit proceeds from law-enforcement authorities. These services encompass a broad range of money-laundering methods. As the operations progress, the trail of the embezzled funds is lost, particularly because of the fungibility of money.”
In December 2025, the office announced that the investigation had entered a new phase, focused on “alleged recruiters who may have provided instructions for the establishment of Spanish bank accounts.”