ROME - Twenty-one people were arrested in a major anti-corruption operation carried out across Italy on Monday.

A former magistrate was among those targeted by the arrest warrants, along with at least two lawyers, police said in a statement.

All of those arrested were variously charged with corruption, money laundering, illegal transfer of financial assets, and criminal association aimed at tax and bankruptcy crimes.

Ten of them were brought to jail, and the others put under house arrests.

Several firms were also seized to a construction entrepreneur for alleged misappropriation of funds worth 234 million euros and issuing false invoices worth 95 million euros.