Italy's Largest Bank is... The Mafia?

Apparently, a lot of Italians aren't refusing that many offers these days.

Europe's financial sector hasn't exactly had the rosiest of times these past few months, but in Italy, one institution is doing just fine, thank you very much: The Mafia. Confesercenti, an Italian trade organization, has released an analysis concluding that the organized crime group makes $180 billion a year – all of it untaxed – and has cash reserves of of $84 billion, far more than any bank in Italy. Plus, just about anyone can get a loan from the Mafia, so long as they're willing to put up with a few more onerous conditions than those offered by (slightly?) more reputable financial sources. The analysis suggests that some 200,000 businesses in Italy have become indebted to the Mafia over the past three years, partly due to lending drying up from the conventional banks. (We're also indebted to them for being the source of such great films over the past 40 years, but that's a different story.) The report also finds that the Mafia commits a crime each and every minute – so remember that the next time you're decrying those "criminals" on Bay or Wall Street, at least they're not, y'know, putting severed horse heads in beds. Yet.