Leading as CEO of Irenwhere he landed in August last year, the mayor of Genoa wanted him at all costs, Marco Bucci. But Paolo Emilio Signorini had also enjoyed the sponsorship of the president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, despite the criticism leveled at his CV which was deemed by some shareholders to be unsuitable for the role due to his lack of experience in the specific utilities sector. His appointment thus appeared to his detractors more as a political choice within the center-right than as linked to skills. Now, in the earthquake that is shaking Liguria, with the arrest of President Toti, accused of corruption, Signorini also ended up there, as former president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea. For him, the accusation from the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office is of “corruption in the exercise of the function and for acts contrary to official duties”.
The investigation by the Genoa prosecutor’s office
At the center of the investigation into what appears to be a corrupt system is Aldo Spinelli, a well-known port entrepreneur. According to the Genoa prosecutor’s office, the group of those arrested and under investigation had set up a system of favors in the form of bribes that would effectively support the local government. Among the various operations now under the scrutiny of investigators, there are also the concessions of port areas. And hence the arrest of Signorini, who was president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea from 2016 until the summer of 2023, when – as mentioned – he took over the role at Iren.
The accusations from the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office
The first corruption front contested by the Prosecutor’s Office is precisely that with the port entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli. Given the promise of various advantages, Paolo Emilio Signorini would have assured him of the acceleration of the procedure in the port management committee for the renewal of the Bulk Terminal concession for 30 years; the concession of spaces in the areas of the former Enel bunker and the tombing of Calata Concenter; in addition to the concession of illegal occupation of the area of the former Carbonile on the eastern and southern sides.
How much Signorini would have pocketed
For these favors, according to the investigators, Signorini initially received 15,000 euros in cash. Then, Spinelli would pay Signorini 22 luxury stays in Monte Carloincluding casino games, “room services, massages and beauty treatments”, an exclusive place on the beach, and entry to the Master 1000 tennis tournament. Among the gifts also casino chips, a Chanel bag, a gold Cartier bracelet and the ability to have your own credit card during a planned trip to Las Vegas. But it didn’t end there: Spinelli would also have offered to Signorini «a position with a salary of 300 thousand euros per year once the mandate has ended” as president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea.
Paolo Emilio Signorini’s CV
Born in Genoa in 1963, Paolo Emilo Signorini graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Florence, continuing his studies at the Yale Law School of Yale University. His career began at the Bank of Italy and at the Ministry of Economy, and then arriving with the Berlusconi IV government, in 2008, at the presidency of the Council of Ministers as head of the Department for the planning and coordination of economic policies, where he remained until 2013. Subsequently, he was head of the Department for Infrastructure, Information and Statistical Systems at the Ministry of Infrastructure. This was between 2013 and 2015, i.e. under the Letta and then Renzi governments. As mentioned, he arrived at the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea as president in 2016, a position he held for 7 years, before leaving Iren, where he began to study a completely new reality for him, without any possibility yet. to affect. Now, after only 9 months, the duration of a pregnancy, no happy events and everything stops. However, it is still too early to say what will happen to Signorini and what the immediate effects will be for Iren. Meanwhile, the stock collapses on the stock market: -7%.
