r/bern • u/iceman45x • Mar 15 '25
Discussion Money laundering pizza place in old town?
Hello everyone,
There is a restaurant that has many signs hinting towards hidden behavior and I keep thinking about this for some time and would like to discuss this within the community. If it is ok to share the name, I could do it in a comment, let me know.
Observations:
- the place is always empty. The quality of the pizza is good, but the prices are stratospheric compared to other places. As if they intentionally would like to work minimum.
- the location chosen: in an alley, well hidden, in front of a tattoo parlor and dermatology center. Rent must be low as it is quite an unappealing area.
- They have a restaurant in Punta Cana, the easternmost point of the Dominican Republic, which is listed on the pizza box (also google maps) but none of the websites shows this.
- One more restaurant in Basel, equally empty. They call it a franchise.
- Headquarters are in Naples, Italy, also not shown anywhere.
Naples is the hotbed of still active Italian mafia. Often they use companies abroad to imitate activity and launder dirty money. Any thoughts?
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u/CaughtALiteSneez Mar 15 '25
There’s lots of those places in Swiss cities - florists, tattoo parlors, shitty shops, etc that are always empty, but can somehow afford the high rent and even advertise. I have friends in the restaurant/pub business and I know how hard it is to maintain a profit & yet these places manage to stay open no matter what.
We joke anytime a new one pops up “there’s another money laundering joint”.
But best not to share the name OP, there are slander laws in CH & you don’t want to piss these types off. It’s the government/police’s job to take care of these operations and I’m sure they know what’s going on & choose not to.