Florence (Italy), Oct 5 (IANS/AKI): Anti-mafia investigators in Florence have impounded assets worth 1.5 million euros from a 38-year-old Chinese businessman, including a villa two luxury cars, bank accounts and other financial assets.

The villa is located in Tavola, outside the Tuscan textiles city of Prato, where the man, named as C.Y., owns businesses, police said.

A court in Prato ordered the asset seizures after a complex probe by tax police of C.Y., who together with other family members declared almost- zero earnings while enjoying a lavish lifestyle.

The court rejected claims by C.Y. that his high standard of living owed to several tens of thousands of euros he had won playing on slot-machines.

The man was arrested in 2012 amid a probe into smuggled merchandise and received a conviction the same year for running illegal gaming parlours inside industrial warehouses.

In 2004, C.Y. was convicted of abetting illegal immigration for his role in a fraud scam aimed at bringing Chinese migrants into Italy, according to police.