The Ministry led by Dario Franceschini granted 863,595 euros of tax credit to a film never shot. The “director” is investigated for double murder in Villa Pamphili
A public contribution of 863,595.90 euros for a film never shot, obtained with a fake identity, a Maltese company of convenience and an Italian co -production. In the background, the flaws of the Tax Credit legislation during the Conte II government and an investigation for double murder that nails the alleged director.
Francis Kaufmann and aka Rexal Ford: identity of convenience
The alleged creator of this scam is Francis Kaufmann, 46 years old from the United States today in prison in Greece. Under the pseudonym “Rexal Ford”, Kaufmann has built an non -existent cinematographic career. Ford’s name appears in a ministerial decree of 27 November 2020 (n. 2872) signed by Nicola Borrelli, then general manager of the cinema and audiovisual under the Ministry of Dario Franceschini in the Conte II government. The document authorizes a non -refundable contribution – the tax credit – of 863,595.90 euros to the film Stars of the nightformally attributed to director Rexal Ford. In reality, Rexal Ford is one of the fictitious identities taken by Kaufmann, the same name with which he also obtained an American passport that was then a false result. Kaufmann’s involvement in the affair emerged in the context of Roman investigations on the murder of his partner Anastasia Trofimova and their daughter Andromeda – a crime that currently sees him investigated.
The yellow of Villa Pamphili: the tattooed mother, the daughter never raised
It is June 7 when, inside Villa Pamphili, the lifeless bodies of a woman and a newborn are found. She is Anastasia Trofimova, 28 years old, originally from WHOSK, Siberia; The girl was called Andromeda and would have turned a year on June 14th. According to the investigations, the little girl was strangled on the evening of June 6th. The mother’s body, already in an advanced state of decomposition, had been abandoned a few hundred meters. Nobody had denounced their disappearance. Anastasia’s identification was possible thanks to a tattoo and the testimony of the mother, alerted by a friend who, suspicious of the girl’s silence, recognized the man in some images spread by the transmission Who saw it?. Anastasia had arrived in Malta in 2023, where she had met Kaufmann. They had had a child and moved to Italy. But in the following months the report had deteriorated. In an email of June 2, the young woman had confessed to the mother that things with that “so mysterious” man were no longer going well. After the crime, Kaufmann fled to Greece, where he was stopped on June 13 in Skiathos. He was in possession of three credit cards and also used an Italian alias, “Matteo Capozzi”, with whom he had purchased a telephone sim. The investigators, in collaboration with FBI and Maltese authorities, are reconstructing the couple’s movements and the young man’s experience. Meanwhile, the commissioner of Rome has ordered an internal verification on the interventions of the police: the man had already been stopped several times, even with the girl in his arms, but had never been retained.
“Stars of the night” and the fictitious company Tintagel Films LLC
Returning to the scam signed by Kaufmann, the ghost film is titled Stars of the nightset in Rome, but never actually produced. The project was presented by a convenient Maltese company, Tintagel Films LLC, also created by Kaufmann. According to the reconstructions, Tintagel was headed precisely to the name Rexal Ford and served to simulate international production. A detailed screenplay, a cost accounting report and even an American passport made out to Ford, arrived at the Ministry. Formally the project respected the requirements of the 2016 Cinema Law, but exploited a derogation that allowed foreign productions to access the Tax Credit without the obligation to deposit copies of the shot How to try. In practice, it was possible to obtain ministerial funding without ever having shot only one frame.
Italian co-producer and coevolutions
To give credibility to the practice, Kaufmann has leaned on a truly existing Italian partner. This is the company Coevolutions srl, based in Rome, and its owner Marco Perotti. It was Perotti who submitted the application for Tax Credit officially to the Ministry. In the initial plan, it was indicated that the credit would be used in 2021. However – as the investigations then reconstructed – the definitive application was registered only in 2023, exploiting a regulatory vacuum: international productions were not obliged to attach a provisional deposit of the filming already made. A bureaucratic description of the costs and an accounting revision was enough to advance the practice.
The cinematographic tax and the regulatory fallen
Tax Credit Cinema is an incentive that covers up to 40% of the production cost, allocated by the Ministry of Culture to support Italian or international films. In the case of Stars of the night40% of the declared budget (almost 2.16 million) led to the 863,595.90 euros granted. The anomaly lies in the procedure: thanks to the regulatory derogation in force in 2020, Kaufmann did not have to deposit materials shot at the time of the request, thus circumventing substantial control over the costs that are really incurred. This aspect is considered today one of the most evident flaws in the tax Credit discipline. Other similar cases had already raised criticism: ambitious projects were never started, only to collect credit and inflate the costs.
Financing process: demand, approval and banking use
The practice kicked off in 2020 by sending the financing application signed by Coevolutions and the fictitious Tintagel Films. The Ministry’s Cinema Directorate therefore examined the documents: declared costs, screenplay, auditing and Ford passport. In January 2021 the practice was positively assessed and the concession decree was issued. In the following years, the credit was sold to a bank, which after regular investigation purchased it, transforming it into liquid money. According to the reconstructions, Kaufmann then transferred the amount to personal current accounts and other fictitious companies, without ever starting the shooting. Ultimately, the entire process passed through a system that – thanks to the Covid emergency – had simplified many procedures at the expense of the controls.
Ministry in alert: possible revocation of credit
Faced with the anomaly that emerged, the Cinema Directorate opened an internal investigation and assessed the revocation of the benefit. In the event of an irregular credit use, we will proceed with the request for full return of the sums, the exclusion of the manufacturer from any form of public funding for the next five years and the reporting to the Prosecutor. The Ministry said that although the process is formally correct, the entire practice is under review. If the total non -existence of the film emerges, the State will be able to claim for the entire amount, with the addition of interests and penalties. In total, there is talk of a figure close to million euros.
The drama of Villa Pamphili and the judicial context
The comedy chronicle of fakes and false cards overlaps the drama of a heinous crime. Francis Kaufmann – aka Rexal Ford, but known in some interceptions also as Charles Francis Kaufmann – is investigated by the summer 2024 for the double murder of his partner Anastasia Trofimova, 29 year old Russian, and their daughter Andromeda. The two victims were found lifeless in the Park of Villa Pamphili in Rome last June 7. Kaufmann is currently in prison in Greece, where he had fled immediately after the facts, waiting for extradition.
During the interrogations and checks carried out in Italy, a past dotted with sudden disappearance, dinners in the best known restaurants in the capital and a life exhibited on social networks, travels and alleged contacts in the world of entertainment, emerged. Now the investigators are evaluating whether the financial scheme of the eternal film project can be connected to the escape of capital and, perhaps, to the same circumstances as the murder. In any case, the story raises deep questions about a system of incentives that, like many observers, can turn into fertile soil for fraud when it remains rough paper behind the cards.
