The Report crew descends on Verona to investigate the “Arena sets-inflated invoices” case and the raid on the gala evening in the amphitheater last June 7 takes VIP guests by surprise, sparking a brawl, or almost. The correspondents of the investigative program conducted on Rai 3 by Sigfrido Ranucci created confusion by asking point-blank questions. The journalists Walter Molino and Andrea Tornago, authors of the reportage which will be broadcast tonight, Sunday 23 June at 8.55pm, have pressed with their cameras, among others, Paolo Paternoster, former Northern League parliamentarian from 2018 to 2022 (in the past also president of Agsm and now back to being an entrepreneur), the mayor Damiano Tommasi, the superintendent of the Arena Foundation Cecilia Gasdia. The service, however, starts on the unforgettable notes of «Nessun dorma…»
Report also calls Tosi into question
It is the famous Puccini aria that echoes in the opening lines of the reportage with which Report puts the spotlight on the affair «’ndrangheta in the Arena: contracts, gangs and politics». This, in fact, is the subtitle of the report which tells how «the roots of the ‘ndrangheta have also infested the marble of the Arena of Verona, the splendid Roman amphitheater known for the opera festival which attracts opera lovers and tourists from all over the world» Report begins. And he raises the bar: «For years, a network of companies has been assembling and dismantling stages and sets which, according to the Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office of Venice, with a round of inflated invoices he enriched the Grande Aracri gangs of Cutro and Arena-Nicoscia of Isola Capo Rizzuto, among the most powerful Calabrian ‘ndrine”. Report also calls Forza Italia parliamentarian Flavio Tosi into question: «In the years in which Tosi was mayor and president of the opera company, Eurocompany became the ace winner of contracts, the only one that could assemble and dismantle sets and stages inside and outside the Arena. But the exclusivity of disassembly has a price…”.
Chiavegato speaks to the microphones of the broadcast
That’s not all, because Ranucci’s broadcast will broadcast an interception regarding Tosi himself, who on the phone – according to Report’s preview – discusses with a local entrepreneur about votes and contracts. The first to be interviewed, however, is the caretaker of the Eurocompany warehouse: now in liquidation, it was managed by the well-known Veronese entrepreneur Giorgio Chiavegato. «I only know that the scenes came, they divided… Turandot, Aida, La Bohème… and that’s it. In fact when it happened, I fell out of the pear tree eh! the custodian shrugs, referring to the investigation and the arrests. In those warehouses in the industrial area of the city, the sets of the Veronese opera season were preserved: 10 thousand square meters that «the Fondazione Arena di Verona rented at a very high price from the Eurocompany of Chiavegato». For the first time after his arrest, Chiavegato speaks to Report’s microphones, at the center of that Anti-Mafia investigation: «I will have started working with the Arena Foundation in 2012, 2013… » begins the entrepreneur. He asks: «How come you always managed to win these contracts, who helped you?». And Chiavegato: «No, we were the only ones who participated». After a year in prison and house arrest, Chiavegato is now awaiting the trial which will begin in Verona after the summer break. He is accused of false invoicing and other tax crimes, with the aggravating circumstance of having facilitated the ‘Ndrangheta.
The investigations of the Venice DDA
In October 2022, it was precisely starting from Chiavegato and its Eurocompany that the Venice DDA revealed a series of companies and cooperatives scattered between Veneto and Calabria: according to the Anti-Mafia, they issued inflated invoices or for work never carried out, allowing launder the dirty money of the ‘Ndrangheta. A seizure of assets worth over 9 million euros took place, while in addition to Chiavegato, the Calabrians Francesco and Pasquale Riillo from Isola di Capo Rizzuto also ended up in prison, both already detained for another ‘Ndrangheta affair. According to the accusations, Domenico Mercurio, an entrepreneur from Crotone who moved to Verona, was responsible for the deal on behalf of the ‘ndrine: as a collector of interests between organized crime, businesses and politics, after his arrest in 2020 he decided to collaborate with justice. He is now under protection and has the status of a repentant, even if his figure remains controversial: the Report report will talk about him, but also about other well-known faces.
