Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into a €1.25bn government purchase of PPE from China, saying a group of businessmen were paid tens of millions of euros in illegal commissions to secure the contracts.   

According to prosecutors in Rome, four Italian companies — Sunsky, Partecipazioni, Microproducts It and Guernica — “illicitly served as concealed intermediaries” between the government and a Chinese consortium for the purchase of personal protective equipment, receiving illegal payments from the Whenzou-based groups.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be hit hard by the pandemic, with the death toll exceeding 35,000 during the first wave. The government initially struggled to provide PPE to health workers and there was a two-month long shortage of face masks in stores.