Google Earth used for IRS Investigation

[MOxxx]

The PISA branch of the "Agenzia delle Entrate", the Italian IRS, has used Google Earth to investigate 30 Businesses operating in the Boat docking/renting/ maintenance business off the coast of Tuscany.

Some of these operations were claiming a ridiculous amount of many ( on the low side) considering the size of the Businesses.

Therefore the investigators monitored the activities of these yards using Google Earth during a period of time and they were able to verify that the volume of business was not the one that some of these businesses declared.

Out of 30 operations 6 were found guilty and one of these 6 appealed the sentence saying that the Government Agency used illegal Investigation techniques. The guy lost.

I think this is a pretty interesting fact at least for Italy , i don't know if Google was used in other parts of the world for Investigations.