Giampiero Maruggi he is an important figure in Basilicata. In the regional elections, thanks to centre-left, the representative of Potenza makes his debut in active politics. Although, in his long professional career, he has not been far from strong powers or controversial passages. Maruggi is running for councilor with Basilicata Municipal Houselist allied with the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement, and many say he will be in pole position as health councilor in the event of Piero Marrese’s victory (not without risks of conflict of interest). But who is this Lucanian representative of a Giallorossi alliance where we are discussing moral question?
Enrollment in Freemasonry
Born in 1957, Maruggi has collected a string of positions in banks and hospitals. At 19 he joined the Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria e Lucania as an employee. Then, in the mid-80s, he rapidly rose to the top of the banking ranks: first he was responsible for the credit service of Mediocredito del Sud and, at the end of the century, general director of Banca Popolare del Materano. After ten years at the head of this reality, Maruggi moved to the same role Banca Popolare del Mezzogiorno until 2010.
In the meantime he graduated in Law and took on the title of lawyer. In 2012, however, the Council of the Potenza Bar Association decided on it cancellation from the Register. Here it appears at least as a curious coincidence that only two years earlier the list of members had been published masonry in the province of Potenza in which the name “Maruggi Giampiero” also appeared. Which effectively made him incompatible with the profession of lawyer.
Reached by NewspaperMaruggi confirms both that he has never worked as a lawyer – because he was “engaged in other types of professional activities” – and that he joined Freemasonry more than thirty years ago and remained there for a short period: “It was a my curiosity in my youth, I wanted to understand that world but then I saw that I had nothing to do with it and I walked away from it definitively”. In itself there would be nothing wrong with being a Freemason, if it weren’t for the fact that his name was shared in 2014 on Facebook since 5 Star Movement Basilicata with this blunt statement: “No member of the Freemasons can run as spokesperson for the M5S“. Not among the 5 Grillini, but in an allied party it’s fine, apparently.
The alleged rigged competition
His journey continued in the 1910s with various roles. In 2012 the time comes to lead theSan Carlo Hospital of Potenza, nominated by Vito De Filippo. Not exactly a lucky two-year period, given the trouble that arrive In at least two circumstances, in fact, he finds himself involved in issues of professional opportunity. The first – more incidental – concerns the death of a woman who died in the cardiac surgery department of the hospital he directs, following which he he resigns. “That story received an absolutely exceptional media storm. There was no responsibility on the part of the strategic management but, to reduce tension at San Carlo, I thought it was right to resign for the good name of the hospital.”
The second is a judicial case in which Maruggi was never investigated: the trial for false ideology and abuse of office which sees among the defendants the current director of the Neonatology department of San Carlo, Simona Pesce, and the winner of the competition of 2015, Camilla Gizzi. Pesce is the partner of the director of the maternal and child department, the gynecologist Sergio Schettini, who also boasts a solid friendship with the former Minister of Health Roberto Speranza. In 2016, the general management appointed Pesce as deputy of the new primary Gizzi, ousting another neonatologist, Giulio Strangiu, despite his qualifications and score in the ranking. The scandal of the alleged rigged competition starts from a video published by the online newspaper Basilicata 24.
Schettini states that his partner had introduced Dr. Gizzi to him, advocating her appointment at the Potenza hospital and, during a dinner, he proposed that she come and work at the San Carlo. Schettini then says that he spoke with Giampiero Maruggi to propose Gizzi to him as director of Neonatology and then that he went to Rome together with the general director himself to meet her at the Canova bar. Here Maruggi would have said to the woman: “We are here, think about it“. And Schettini will then add: “Maruggi managed to give us the right energy at that moment“. Now we will go to trial.
“I was in Rome together with my health director for other work matters. Doctor Schettini proposed me to have a coffee and Doctor Gizzi was also present – says Maruggi on this anecdote -. This knowledge convinced me that the doctor was very good, but then it ended there because the competition procedures didn’t concern me and I didn’t play any role in the subsequent phases. She decided to participate in a competition announced by San Carlo and I really think she won it on merit and There was absolutely nothing itchy about it.”
The San Carlo auction rigging
For another important judicial matter, however, Giampiero Maruggi ends up accused. Always in the role of director of San Carlo. The prosecutor’s office challenges him auction rigging for the management of a contract for the same structure of approximately 30 million euros which would have been entrusted to the company Kuadra srl, represented by Giuseppe Tancredi, without tender, to ensure the company “a sort of monopoly in the execution of hospital services” , the magistrates write. In June 2017 the Potenza preliminary hearing judge Amerigo Palma issued the indictment for Maruggi, Tancredi and four other people. The trial ended – this is unpublished news – with a sentence of prescription for all the defendants.
“I was a total stranger – Maruggi tells us -. There was an indictment that I never understood” given that the preliminary hearing judge decided “in an almost automatic and incomprehensible manner to send me to trial“. It would therefore be a matter of an affair in which San Carlo “had achieved considerable savings on certain supplies, for which I personally feel very at ease with my conscience of having done well”. And on the disputed connections made with Giovanni TancrediMaruggi denies everything: “I never had a direct relationship with him. As general manager I had the task of outlining the vision of the healthcare company and I never spoke with people relating to individual supplies”.
“The judge will supervise our bank”
During his ten-year work experience, Maruggi is also Area Manager of the Lucanian branches of the Banca Popolare di Bari. His name thus appears in another investigation in the Apulian capital into the bankruptcy of Fimco and Maiora Group, a company owned by the Fusillo di Noci group. In fact, he is the official who recounts in detail an episode, in which he is the protagonist, in an email (without any criminal relevance for Maruggi) addressed on 6 March 2018 to Gianluca Jacobini. The latter is still charged with complicity in fraudulent bankruptcy.
As stated in the papers of prosecutor Lanfranco Marazia, Maruggi reported to Jacobini that he had met a magistrate serving in the criminal sector in Potenza and had obtained from him certainties about the change of pace, favorable to the bank, which would shortly thereafter be registered in that Court, where some cases against BpB were underway. “I explained to him what had been done to the detriment of our bank”, as well as “the climate of ostracism that we must register against us at the Court of Potenza”. The judge is Rosario Baglionithen president of the Criminal Section of the Potenza Court: “He spoke very highly of a branch manager and expressed himself positively also on our role as a local bank”.
The magistrate would have called the deputy judge to whom that matter refers: “He assured me anyway that he will speak to him and he will keep watch so that our bank does not have to suffer unjustified treatment”. Finally, he says he is convinced that, “since the environment of the Court of Potenza is small and very permeable, our step will certainly be known to many – concluded the email – and will constitute in itself itself a warning to those who have so far believed they could treat our bank lightly or acrimoniously”.
Maruggi confirms the contents of the meeting: “I was interested in the good name of BpB. I seemed to detect attitudes on the part of some bankruptcy trustees who moved sums to our bank based on rumors that it was in difficulty. I became worried dutifully therefore to represent that at that moment the bank’s fundamentals were in order and that there was no cause for concern“. The pressure on Judge Baglioni would seem obvious. But he denies any strangeness: “I had never raised him before. I asked him for a formal appointment and was received. It was a cordial meeting in which I explained to him the reasons for our bank. Nothing else”.
Pd and 5 Stars in silence
Now, Giampiero Maruggi is a person with a clean criminal record. However, what appears clearly – with these biographical backgrounds – is that his profile struggles to be in line with the figure of a politically untouched candidate as both the Democratic Party and the 5 Star Movement continue to insist with their ethical codes.
In short: with Marrese winning against Vito Bardi, some notable embarrassment between the dem and the grillini could arise. The question therefore remains this: Conte and Schlein don’t they have anything to comment on the CV of this ally of theirs?
Tags: candidate embarrassing left Basilicata
