«Io I didn’t know anything about bioplasticI stuck to what I was told. I don’t have a degree, but I studied from university textbooks. In chemistry I got an excellent result, I got 27″. Paul Ottani is one of the key figures in the Bio-On affair. The entrepreneur, who made his fortune with applications for payments between banks, was the witness for the prosecution in yesterday’s hearing in the trial which sees former top management of start-up that promised to save the world from plastic are accused. Now they are all on trial, in various capacities, on charges of bankruptcy, market manipulation and attempted credit abuse.
The testimony: the key points
«I have never bought Bio-on shares – Ottani clarified -. But the project was very interestingI even ate the plastic produced to see if it was toxic”. Ottani met Bio-on at the time of the pilot plant in Minerbio («A very modest production, complex to industrialize») and then it was protagonist of the alleged sale of a license in Holland. A deal that closed in the last days of 2017 and then ended budgeted for 5.1 million. Even if, as Ottani himself said, the only payment for that operation was 25 thousand euros. The businessman confirmed that it has no debts with Bio-on who, instead, had entered that figure under the credits heading. «I was a procurer who tried to solve problems, I accompanied the Dutch to Minerbio, the situation was embarrassing”. On the draft agreement, or rather the term sheet, signed with the Dutch, the entrepreneur specified that he did not speak English, that is, the language in which the agreement was drawn up. “I had one of my employees help me, he acted as an interpreter.” But why was that contract not finalized? «It didn’t happen because He wasdespite numerous requests, he never answered about the characteristics of bioplastic so everything stopped.”
The manager of Kartell
The defenses of the defendants – Professor Tommaso Guerini for the founder Marco Astorri – attempted to overturn the entrepreneur’s reconstruction anything but unprepared. Among yesterday’s witnesses was also Dario Fumagalli, general manager of Kartell, the jewel company of made in Italy which had acquired a share of the start-up and started a joint venture. The goal was to remake Kartell’s iconic modular furniture with 100% clean plastic from Astorri’s company. “The first modular furniture was sold and had an average level of complaints.” For approximately 1,000 pieces of furniture, Bio-on delivered 3,500 kilos of material to Kartell. The second shipment (13 thousand kilos) turned out to be a disaster. It was the days after the Quintessential attack and the interceptions tell of the desperate attempt to produce and deliver. «There were several exchanges and they were proposed remedies but with that powder we never managed to print”closed Fumagalli. Last witness of the day was lawyer Marco Golda Perini, general counsel of Pwc Italia. The auditing firm that approved with a recall the disputed 2016 budget and whose assignment was then not renewed.
