ROME (AP) — Italian police said Monday they had broken up a ring of businessmen accused of cheating the government out of 440 million euros in tax credits that were granted as part of government measures to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police said 35 people were targeted with arrest warrants, home detention or other restrictive measures and that authorities carried out 80 searches across the country, from Trentino in the north to Sicily in the south and points in between.

The investigation was sparked by suspicious transaction reports that were shown to be from nonexistent companies or failing companies, financial police said in a statement. Those companies had been taken over by front men who posed as the legal representative and entered the necessary data in the Italian government’s tax database to apply for tax credits.

Subsequent investigation showed that a criminal organization, involving some 12 core businessmen, “was totally dedicated to the creation and marketing of false tax credits, subsequently monetized by transferring them to unsuspecting buyers unrelated to the scam,” the statement said.

The Italian government passed a series of measures to try to keep Italian businesses afloat after Italy became the first epicenter of the outbreak in Europe in February 2020 and imposed the first nationwide lockdown and production shutdown in the West.