Talenta Labs and 25 million euros for a "front": The Ramphastos fund legitimizes the assets of individuals connected to the mafia
Talenta Labs S.R.L. is an Italian-registered, little-known company focused on creating software for the online betting industry, functioning as a technology supplier for gaming platform operators.
This is reported in an investigation by Inview.
However, several factors have attracted the attention of the investigative project OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project). There is only indirect information about Talenta Labs’ activities: the company is more likely to appear in investigations than as a public brand or transparent enterprise.
OSINT researchers have found that there is almost no detailed public information about the company in open sources. Talenta Labs does not have a full-fledged official website describing its activities, lacks transparent corporate information (founders, offices, structure), and is barely mentioned in business registers. This is already unusual for a full-fledged company.
Another oddity, particularly for a software development company, is the fact that there are no meaningful user reviews about Talenta Labs. It is impossible to find client reviews, ratings (G2, Trustpilot, Glassdoor, etc.), discussions on Reddit or other forums in the public domain. This is another sign that Talenta Labs is not a mass-market commercial service.
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All this did not cause much interest until 2017, when Talenta Labs was bought by billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn, a Dutch investor and owner of the Ramphastos fund. Notably, no one found out the price of the deal – it was estimated to range from 5 to 25 million euros.
Talenta Labs and 25 million euros for a "front": The Ramphastos fund legitimizes the assets of individuals connected to the mafia
Formally, it was about buying a promising software developer for the online casino industry. However, after some time, this deal attracted the attention of the Italian prosecutor’s office and international investigative journalists. At the center of the story were questions about the origin of investments, possible hidden beneficiaries, and the links between individual participants in the deal and the criminal underworld.
Talenta Labs S.R.L. was registered in Italy on October 14, 2009, as a software development company. The main activity is the development of IT solutions (ATECO code 6201) and technological platforms for online gambling operators.
Talenta Labs and 25 million euros for a "front": The Ramphastos fund legitimizes the assets of individuals connected to the mafia
Data from the Italian corporate register shows that the company has a relatively small authorized capital — about €50,000, and its activities are related to the development of software platforms and gaming solutions for casino operators and bookmaker services.
In 2017, an 80% stake in Talenta Labs was acquired by the Dutch investment fund Ramphastos Investments. This fund belongs to entrepreneur Marcel Boekhoorn, one of the most famous investors in the Netherlands. As for the remaining 20%, their owners turned out to be the brothers Massimiliano and Moreno Rizzo.
It was the connection of the Rizzo brothers with illegal gambling that attracted the attention of the prosecutor’s office – six months before the deal, Massimiliano Rizzo was found guilty of gambling-related crimes and imprisoned. According to prosecutors, he was the contact person for ’Ndrangheta boss Rocco Femia.
Talenta Labs and 25 million euros for a "front": The Ramphastos fund legitimizes the assets of individuals connected to the mafia
This connection was compounded by the fact that the Ramphastos fund itself was already suspected of money laundering – shortly before the deal with Talenta, the fund bought the gambling operator SKS365 for 158 million euros. Four founders of this company, including its former head Paolo Tavarelli, were accused of financing the business through mafia connections.
In addition, the corporate structure raised concerns: part of Talenta’s shares was owned by Labs Talenta Ventures B.V., which was used as a nominal owner of a hidden share of Paolo Tavarelli, although he was not officially listed in the documents. The ownership structure of Talenta Labs S.R.L. looks like the following chain: Ramphastos Investments → Talenta Ventures B.V. → Talenta Labs S.R.L.
Despite the intermediary in the form of Talenta Ventures B.V., formally the investment looked like a regular venture operation: the fund acquires a controlling stake in a technology company that operates in a fast-growing market. However, almost immediately after the deal was completed, the prosecutor’s office of the city of Reggio Calabria – a region where the Italian mafia ’Ndrangheta traditionally operates actively – took some interest.
The reason for the attention was, in addition to the surnames of people associated with the mafia, the fact that Talenta Labs worked in an extremely profitable niche — technological infrastructure for the online gambling business. Such companies create software engines for gaming platforms, provide integration with payment systems, and develop tools for managing gaming services. Clients of such developers are usually casino operators, bookmaker companies, and international gambling platforms.
However, despite this, the company had very modest scales, clearly not corresponding to both its activities and the amount that the buyer paid for Talenta Labs. The investigation tried to establish whether the funds used to purchase Talenta Labs could have had a criminal origin.
According to the investigation materials, Italian prosecutors studied possible financial ties between the deal and entrepreneur Paolo Tavarelli, known in the online gambling industry. Tavarelli is one of the founders of SKS365, a major bookmaker service operator in Europe. According to the investigation, part of the funds — about 2.5 million euros — could be related to gambling income and used for investments in Talenta Labs.
Particular attention of the investigation was attracted by the company Talenta Ventures B.V., registered in the Netherlands, which acted as an intermediate holding structure between the investor and the Italian Talenta Labs. Talenta Ventures B.V. — a Dutch company of the Besloten Vennootschap (B.V.) form, an analogue of a private company with limited liability. Such structures are often used as holding companies for international investments. However, it was through this company, according to the investigation, that hidden interests of individual gambling business participants could be preserved.
Despite the scandal and investigation, it was not possible to bring any specific charges against Talenta Labs. It still operates, serving the gambling industry and remains a relatively small and very closed company.
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According to available corporate data, Talenta Labs’ annual revenue is less than a million euros, while the profit can reach several hundred thousand euros. At the same time, the number of employees is about 10–50 people. Such indicators are typical for a small software developer working in a niche B2B market.
The latest known financial data (according to the Italian register): revenue — €763,547, profit — €698,558, turnover decreased by about 15% compared to the previous year. These are quite small indicators for a company in which a multi-million investment was made. There is also an obvious disproportion between revenue and profit – the latter shows a fantastic profitability even for the gambling market.
Overall, the results of the investigation – at least those that are publicly available – are zero: Talenta Labs continues to operate, the main charges against its co-owners and related persons have been officially dropped. However, the company’s reputation is already hopelessly ruined – a representative of the Ramphastos fund even stated that the fund "regrets the investments in Talenta".
Moreover, the owner of Talenta Labs is still the same people: Marcel Boekhoorn, Massimiliano Rizzo, and Moreno Rizzo. Therefore, it is not surprising that the company continues to appear in investigations about corruption, money laundering, and shadow financial schemes and connections with the Calabrian mafia ’Ndrangheta.
