Vintage vinyl LP of ‘Girl From Ipanema’ leads to arrest of Italian fugitive

nme.com:

The Times reports, the 69-year-old Roberto Vivaldi fled Italy in the 1990s after being convicted of money laundering and fraudulent bankruptcy had been living under a fake name.

The prolific fraudster had also decided to pivot careers and had been running a vintage record shop on the island of Isla de Margarita in Venezuela.

Vivaldi’s sales took off during the pandemic, right around the time police reopened his case.After authorities discovered his social media profiles and that he’d been selling vinyl records online, Interpol officers created a false identity and placed an order for some LPs including an early pressing of ‘Garota de Ipanema’ by its Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, which was re-recorded in English as ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz.El día de hoy fue detenido en la isla de Margarita, por funcionarios de INTERPOL, el ciudadano de nacionalidad italiana: Roberto Vivaldi, quien presenta Notificación Roja, por la OCN de Roma.

Por fraude, bancarrota, omitir impuesto y estafa pic.twitter.com/172DgSbxmd— Carlos Gárate (@Carlosgarate14) March 5, 2021When police received their copy of bossa nova jazz hit, it was covered in Vivaldi’s fingerprints.“We checked the social media accounts of his family, friends and known associates and, using software, found some were in touch with a profile based in Venezuela,” said chief Alessandro Gallo.