She came to national prominence after discovering the existence of audio tapes of telephone calls between high level Italian politicians and Stefano Ricucci and Gianpiero Fiorani.
These businessmen had mysteriously become extremely rich in about only 10 years buying and selling very expensive and extravagant luxury real estate properties, with earnings around 100% to 300% over a reasonable market price.
During her short time in the police, she received a "solemn praise" (encomio solenne) for her work during the crisis resulting from large-scale illegal immigration from Albania and Africa into the Apulia coastal region of Italy.
Clementina Forleo became famous as a judge when she found two Tunisian nationals, Maher Boujahia and Ali Toumi, and a Moroccan, Mohamed Daki, innocent of the charge of international terrorism.
Later, her judgment was reversed by the Italian Supreme Court (Cassazione) and then by the second Corte d'Assise d'Appello, on October 23 of 2007, noting the terrorist, rather than military nature of the criminal plans that were attributed to the suspects.