Four convictions and twelve acquittals. It ended like this in recent days, in front of the Second Collegiate Criminal Section of the Court of Salerno, the first instance trial on a 5 million euro maxi scam against the State and the European Union to obtain fuel at subsidized prices for agricultural use and receive community funding intended to support the agri-food sector which in 2013 led to the execution of 20 arrests by Carabinieri of the Anti-Fraud Unit of Salerno. Sentenced to two years and six months in prison, in addition to the payment of court costs, for fraud, coercion of the Public Authority and material falsehood, they were Matteo Barrella and Vincenzo Abate, both owners of ghost agricultural businesses. Same sentence to Giovanni Avaglianofor material falsity, as a fuel transport and distribution worker. Gioacchino Campanile, business agent and sales assistant, he was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months for material forgery. For other contested charges, however, Lby statute of limitations, being facts dating back to 2009 and 2010. Barbara Autuori, Giuseppe Barbato, Vincenzo Di Martino, Giovanni Gaeta, Fabrizio Marchese and Marco Raimondi were acquitted because the fact does not constitute a crime. Prescription replaced, however, for Giuseppe Maiorino, Alfredo Malandrino, Antonietta Meloro, Sandro Pocorobba and Gabriele Garofalo, considered promoter and organizer of the entire structure. The latter, among other things, was also involved in another affair involving diesel smuggling, in Trento, for which he received a plea agreement of two years and four months. The only one acquitted for not having committed the crime was the ex employee of the Agricultural Machinery Office of the Province of Salerno, Ferdinando Costa, aaccused of being the legal and technical-accounting consultant of the criminal association. Defended by the lawyer Attilio Tajani, he managed to dismantle the accusatory plan and demonstrate his total extraneousness to the facts. The Court also ordered, among other things, the restitution of the sums seized to both him and Giovanni Avagliano. In the defense team, among others, also the lawyers Tullio Toriello, Orazio Tedesco, Giuseppina Strada, Gianluca D’Ambrosi, Mario Pastorino, Serena Landi, Nunzia Buonerba, Giovanni M. Cirillo and Marco Martello.
During the investigation, at the time, the Salerno soldiers of the Anti-fraud Unit had ascertained the existence of a real business circuit which illegally yielded concessions on the use of agricultural fuel by defrauding the State, for a total amount estimated at approximately 5 million euros, corresponding to the excise duty subtracted.
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