50 million euros seized from man over 1984 kidnapping (3)

Andria, June 5 - Carabinieri police on Monday seized assets worth a total of 50 million euros from Giuseppe Stallone, a 78-year-old who kidnapped Brescia businessman Pietro Fenotti in March 1984 to extort a ransom, sources said. Stallone, who was condemned to six years, four months in prison in relation to the case, declared annual earnings of just 15,000 euros to the tax authorities, the sources said. Police said examining Stallone's possessions was "like going through a giant labyrinth and then coming upon a bank vault". They found real estate including a reception centre with an Olympic-size swimming pool and huge lawn at Castel del Monte, medieval emperor Frederick II's old stamping ground with its iconic castle. Stallone invested more than three million euros in companies over the years, police said, and was involved in another three kidnappings from 1977 to 1982 in Rome, Bari and Lecce, in one of them netting a ransom of five billion lire.