Assailed by customers and cameras, investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office, arrested by the Finance Police on the orders of the investigating judge because, according to the prosecution, «he sold other people’s cars and defrauded buyers». Mauro Gianmoena, the (alleged) “crafty” Veronese trader, has been freed in the last few hours, after exactly 14 days in prison in Regina Coeli. The Scala prosecutors had requested his transfer to the Verona Montorio district housebut there was not even time to complete the procedure, because the Court of Review of Venice, fully accepting the request presented by the defenders Roberto Bussinello and Matteo Destri, declared the immediate “loss of effectiveness of the precautionary measure in place”.
The Roman holiday
His release has already taken place and the 44-year-old immediately returned to his home in Garda, where he can still continue to live albeit under seizure. A totally different scenario, compared to the one that only two weeks ago brought the case to the fore on Canale 5. «Where is our money, when do you plan to give it back to us?“, some furious customers had besieged him, carrying out a real raid on his “headquarters” in Peschiera del Garda, backed by the Striscia envoy the News Moreno Morello. “I have to check, I’ll check with the bank, I’ll see you in a few days…”, Gianmoena, 45 years old in July, had taken his time in front of the cameras. Trentino (born in Cavalese) of origin, resident and operating on the Veronese side of Garda with customers also in Lombardy. «He sells cars that aren’t his», is the key suspicion on the basis of which, less than 24 hours after the broadcast of the report that Antonio Ricci’s satirical news program «dedicated» to him, the alleged “smart” trader he was arrested in the capital, while he was taking “a short Roman holiday”.
The class action
Ended up in prison on April 12th for multiple fraud charges (about thirty, the cases being examined by the Verona prosecutors)and self-laundering, for having (again based on the allegations) “passed” the proceeds of the alleged crimes from one company to another, Gianmoena has just been released without any precautionary measures, not even the obligation to sign. And to think that new complaints were already arriving against him and a class action was in prospect: now, however, suspicions are wavering. «On the part of our client, as we have been repeating from the beginning, there was no fraud, because – lawyers Bussinello and Destri highlight – in the contracts it was expressly specified that at the time of the sale the cars were in the process of being redeemed and not yet owned by the seller, or the suspect”. In other words, by signing those documents, the customers of Gianmoena would have exposed themselves to the risk of the deal might not be successful. “As regards self-laundering, since there was no fraud, the conditions – according to the defenders – for this second crime also disappear.” Furthermore, according to Gianmoena’s lawyers, “there is not even the risk of repeating the crime, given that the seals were also triggered simultaneously with the arrest for his accounts, his companies, even his home.”
These are the key arguments that earned the defense the immediate release from prison of the founder-sole shareholder of «Mg Rent, the rental that is convenient», although to know the official reasons we will have to wait for the filing by the lagoon judges in a month. Now, however, the hopes of protesting customers risk fading, complaining of having been “deceived and cheated, taking advantage of our good faith and our extreme necessity to have a used car. We needed a simple small car, those online ads seemed to be right for us. We needed it to go to work or to give it to our children – they report – On average, we lost between 12 and 14 thousand euros, some of us were even foreclosed, some risked being fired. We don’t care so much that that person is in prison, but that he returns the money to us. Where are they, how will we get them back now?».
