from our correspondent
GENOA For the entrepreneurs of the port, political times did not move at the same speed as business ones. Logistics king Aldo Spinelli is in a hurry and, according to documents, is pressuring Giovanni Toti for the thirty-year extension of the Bulk Terminal. So much so that on the evening of September 1st 2021 the governor telephoned the president of the Port Authority Paolo Emilio Signorini: «I’ll tell you a little about Spinelli, let’s bring that stuff to the Committee as soon as possible, if we can do it by the middle of September is convenient for me too.” And Luigi Alberto Amico, owner of the leading company in Europe in the repairs and renovations of superyachts, is openly annoyed, as he says he intends to continue financing Toti’s foundations but is eager for “that extra bit of legitimate attention”. He is included in the list of participants of a mission to Dubai with the governor and Signorini, but at the last minute he is forced to give up. «I needed it like crazy – he regrets it – it was the moment to give a little wake up call, that they don’t do things to me. That is, they don’t move forward with things they should have been doing for years, they are always behind.”
Corruption in Genoa, a mole among the investigators: «You see they are investigating», the wiretaps. Meloni: «We await Toti’s answers»
EXCHANGE MONEY
The investigation by the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office into the alleged Liguria system, a hypothesized contamination between entrepreneurs and administrators in which the former would have provided money in exchange for the release of concessions, is full of interceptions in which those with interests in the port area do not place themselves scruple to knock insistently on the doors of the Region and the Managing Authority. Amico also does so, received in February 2022 by the president’s chief of staff Matteo Cozzani identified as a “preferential channel for achieving one’s interests”, writes the financial police. The entrepreneur emerges from the captured conversation, explains his needs and “shortly afterwards introduces what can figuratively be considered his own bargaining chip”, i.e. the donations to the Giovanni Toti Committee. Amato intends to continue to give his financial support, but considering the recent media outcry he would prefer not to expose himself: «Now, if I can, I do it through people who cannot be traced back, but they must be trusted, do you understand?».
Cozzani, it emerges from the papers, says he is saddened by the situation, underlining that “people in Rome from other parties would have even blamed them for doing things in a transparent way, as required by law”, the same investigators note. Only clear transfers, in short, like all those that arrived in the coffers of Toti’s foundations. A line of conduct highlighted from the beginning by the lawyer Stefano Savi, the governor’s defender: «The disbursements are traced and intended for political activity, the president has never taken anything for himself». Next week the number one of the Region will appear before the magistrates. «We asked to be questioned and the prosecutors who are following the investigations have a rather busy timetable. They will find a date and communicate it to us”, informs Savi. With two further clarifications. The resignation hypothesis «at the moment is an act that cannot be taken unilaterally without consulting the other political protagonists. They are instrumental inferences. Toti’s state of mind is that of a person who believes he has to explain a series of facts that have had an interpretation.” On the issue of the maxi supply of masks during the pandemic period (for which Toti is not under investigation) and the communication of data relating to those infected, themes that emerged during the investigation, «this is a trend from three-four years ago which had led to a forgery registration but was no longer followed up. To date, nothing has been communicated to us, no further investigation has been notified to us.”
NO COLLUSION
And then the relations with Spinelli, who two days ago Spinelli answered the investigating judge’s questions and defended himself: «I have financed everyone, openly, even parties I don’t know. I was fooled by Toti, he promises things that he is unable to keep.” If these are the statements recorded in the minutes, Savi reflects, «it is proof that there was no collusion between the president and the entrepreneur. Maybe Spinelli had other friends or other channels.” In Spinelli, the Prosecutor’s Office disputes funding for a total of 74,100 euros to Toti’s electoral committee in exchange for bureaucratic benefits and when in 2021 the prosecutors begin to investigate the donations of entrepreneurs to the governor’s foundations the two talk about it on the phone. And the businessman expresses his appreciation for the new dynamism of the city: «We thank God that we have a trio in Genoa, which has slept for thirty years. We have Toti, Signorini and Bucci and finally Genoa will become the European capital, not just of Italy, with all the investments.”
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