A 57-year-old man, originally from central Italy, facing 25 charges including deception, fraud and money laundering between 2001 and 2011 today claimed to have links to President Robert Mugabe, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. According to the Northamptonshire Telegraph Giovanni di Stefano, who moved to the United Kingdom, as a boy said he initially met Mugabe in Rome where he was shopping with his wife. Questioned over the precise nature of their relationship, he said there were “money transfers” made to Zimbabwe. “There were transactions with the Mugabe regime.”Di Stefano, who admitted that he was not a qualified lawyer, is facing nine counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, eight counts of fraud, three counts of acquiring criminal property, two counts of using a false instrument, one count of attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception, one count of obtaining property by deception and one count of using criminal property. He denies the charges.
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