Several villas and a luxury real estate agency were searched on the island of Cavallo. The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office is investigating alleged laundering by organized gangs of aggravated tax fraud.
Publi-Information 
THE National Financial Prosecutor’s Office had several searches villas and a luxury real estate agency on the Corsican island of Cavalloas well as in the Nice regionaccording to information reported by Corsica-Morning. At the origin of these searches, a PNF investigation relating to alleged facts of “organized gang laundering of aggravated tax fraud“, who confirmed the existence of these operations on Sunday, November 8, after being contacted by the AFP, without however communicating the identity of the people concerned or the precise elements at the origin of the investigation.
The intervention mobilized around twenty soldiers from the research section of the Corsican gendarmerie, responsible for investigations for several months. They were supported by digital investigators from the National Judicial Police Unit of the National Gendarmerie (UNPJ). A PNF magistrate was present on site, while the gendarmerie air forces assisted in the operation.
The authorities remain, for the moment, particularly discreet about the scope of the investigation. However, the choice of Cavallo, an island territory with very controlled access and intimately linked to prestigious real estate, great fortunes and numerous controversies, does not fail to recall the numerous cases which have marked its history. © Hôtel & SPA des Pêcheurs
A one-square-kilometer island that has become a refuge for wealthy people
To understand the Cavallo singularityyou have to look at the map. Located at theextreme south of Corsicain theLavezzi archipelagothis small island of approximately one square kilometer is located near Bonifacio, between Corsica and Sardinia.
The island of Cavallo: luxury, calm and pleasure, for this group of around twenty islets and reefs, in a remarkable maritime environment, made of granite rocks, coves and particularly clear waters. © Cavallo Island
THE destiny of the island shifts in the 1960s. In 1966, precisely, when Jean Castel, figure of the Parisian nightlife, discovers the archipelago and acquires Cavallo for a few million francs, where he then imagines creating a upscale summer destinationboth discreet and worldly, far from traditional seaside resorts. The project takes shape around stone houses, deliberately rustic architecture and a hotel, theHôtel des Pêcheurs, which becomes the emblematic establishment of the island.
The only hotel establishment on the island of Cavallo, the Hôtel & Spa des Pêcheurs is a four-star address located on the edge of the turquoise waters of the Lavezzi archipelago. Built in local stone, close to the coves and white sand beaches, it persists in cultivating discretion and intimacy in one of the most exclusive areas of Corsica. © Hôtel & SPA des Pêcheurs
And it works! Since the development of Cavallo quickly attracted a wealthy clientele, French and foreign – Prince Victor-Emmanuel of Savoy was among the first buyers. Over the decades, the island became a popular vacation spot for personalities from cinema, entertainment and business. Her name is associated with those of Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni, Brigitte Bardot and the princely family of Monaco; International billionaires, including Bill Gates, have also been cited as owners or visitors to the island.
This reputation contributes to shaping the image of a separate territory, where properties are transmitted or negotiated far from the hustle and bustle of the continent. But theisolation and exclusive character of Cavallo also fueled fantasies, tensions and controversies, cracking its postcard decor.
A history marked by business and tensions around land
In 1978, a tragedy involving Victor-Emmanuel de Savoie, who used a firearm after noticing the disappearance of his dinghy, cost the life of an 18-year-old young man who was sleeping on a nearby boat; an affair which had a profound impact on the reputation of Cavallo.
In the 1980s, the changes of ownership and real estate transactions also raise questions, Italian investors being associated with suspicions of links with mafia networks such as money laundering. One of the characters mentioned in this story, Lillo Lauricella, becomes an influential figure on the island before being assassinated in Caracas in 2002.
There question of access to the island and its appropriation has also regularly caused tensions. Of the Corsican nationalist movements denounced privatization in fact an insular space removed from ordinary uses; in particular the beaches and coves, which have crystallized the debates on the right of access to the coast. Of the villas were also the target of attacks in the 1990s.
After illegal construction, a new financial investigation
The PNF searches take place while theisland was recently at the center of another court casethis time relating to compliance with town planning rules. In September, the Bastia criminal court condemned the real estate developer Antony Perrino and his father fined 500,000 euros for the illegal construction of bungalows in Cavallo. The court also ordered their demolition.
The file concerned the installation and maintenance, between 2018 and 2024, of 37 mobile homes representing approximately 1,000 m2 ; equipment which had been installed outside authorized locations, without building permits and in a natural zone of the local urban plan of Bonifacio where construction was prohibited. State services had sent several reminders to interested parties. During the May hearing, the public prosecutor of Bastia, Jean-Philippe Navarre, summarized the seriousness of the alleged facts in these terms: “the heart of (This) file, it’s eight years of total disregard for town planning to make money on the island of Cavallo, a lawless area“.
This conviction concerns a file separate from the investigation currently being conducted by the PNF. No information communicated by the prosecution allows, at this stage, to establish a link between the two procedures, nor to affirm that the people convicted for the illegal constructions are concerned by the new investigations.
Hotel & SPA des Pêcheurs
