This morning, the president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, a member of the Noi Moderati party, was issued with a precautionary custody order with house arrest. The accusation is corruption for the exercise of the function and for acts contrary to official duties. The investigation is conducted by the DDA of Genoa together with the prosecutor’s office of the Ligurian capital, led by Nicola Piacente. The focus of the investigation is the 2020 elections in Liguria and in addition to the governor, 9 other people were affected by precautionary measures, including Matteo Cozzani, Toti’s head of cabinet. The searches are still ongoing and so far 570 thousand euros have been seized from some entrepreneurs.
The people involved
They are also affected by the precautionary measures Paolo Emilio Signorini, former president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea; the entrepreneurs Aldo and Roberto Spinelli and Mauro Vianello; the director of Esselunga, Francesco Moncada. Other recipients of the ordinance are Arturo Angelo Testa, Italo Maurizio Testa and Venanzio Maurici. The only one for whom the prison doors have been opened is Signorini, under investigation for corruption for the exercise of the function and for acts contrary to official duties. For Cozzani, now under house arrest, the crime of electoral corruption. However, he is also burdened by the aggravating circumstance of having acted in order to facilitate the activity of Cosa Nostra. She accuses that she is not moved by Governor Toti. In particular, following Cozzani’s activity, the investigators turned the spotlight on the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district, in the province of Caltanissetta, which has branches in Genoa.
The accusations against the chief of staff
Cozzani was the coordinator of the electoral campaign for the “Let’s change with Toti Presidente” list in 2020 and, according to the prosecutor’s office, he promised, together with the suspects Italo Maurizio Testa and Arturo Angelo Testa, linked to the district of Riesijobs and the change of public housing for convey the votes of voters belonging to the Sicilian community of Genoa. This maneuver would have moved around 400 votes towards Toti’s list, in particular the candidate Stefano Anzalone, also under investigation but without mafia aggravating circumstances, and towards other candidates. Specifically, Anzalone would have offered the Testa brothers room and board in Genoa in the period between 10 and 19 September 2020.
The accusations against Giovanni Toti
The investigation file would be opened for alleged bribes in port. According to what was reconstructed by the magistrates, there was a system of power that directed the political-administrative operations that took place in Liguria in recent years, including the management, granted until 2051, of the Bulk Terminal, managed by the company Terminal Rinfuse Genova srl., 55% controlled by Spinelli Srl. It is one of the main terminals of the Genoese port, a fundamental commercial hub in the Mediterranean, one of the main ones for trade to and from Italy. From the investigation documents it emerges that the governor received money to facilitate the building procedures for two supermarkets in Esselunga but also for speed up the renewal of port concessions and transform beaches from free to private.
Investigators claim that the governor received it in multiple tranches 74,100 euroswhich the Spinellis would have paid to “Giovanni Toti Committee”, sometimes as funding, sometimes for participation in electoral dinners. The president of Liguria would also have taken action to assign the Spinellis former Carbonile Itar and Carbonile Levante port spaces and a state-owned area of Aspi-Società Autostrade. In competition with Cozzani, he is then accused of having accepted Moncada’s promise of illicit financing represented by the hidden payment of some advertising passages on the panel displayed on the Colombo Terrace for the municipal election campaign of June 2022. This, in exchange for the commitment to unblock two Esselunga procedures pending in the Region relating to the opening of two sales points respectively a Sestri Ponente and Savona.
The investigating judge’s picture
In the order with which the governor was given house arrest, the investigating judge claims that the precautionary needs were necessary to “the current concrete danger facing the suspect commits other serious crimes“. Specifically, the judge for preliminary investigations writes that it could “reiterate during the next elections similar conduct corrupt, putting one’s function at the service of private interests in exchange for benefits for oneself and others“. These needs, continues the investigating judge, “they can essentially be deduced from the very methods of conduct from which an evident one emerges systematic nature of the mechanism corruptive“. Furthermore, according to the judge of preliminary investigations, there would be “the current and concrete danger of evidentiary pollution“, i.e. the risk that “contact other suspects to develop a common strategy“. Or, explains the investigating judge, you could get in touch with people “capable of providing useful circumstances for the purposes of a convenient reconstruction of events“.
Esselunga’s reply
Closely following the press launches on the arrest of Giovanni Toti and the investigation which, among others, also involves Francesco Moncada, director of Esselunga, the supermarket giant issued a note in which it claims “that its management always has acted correctly and expresses confidence in the work of the judiciary, hoping that the facts will be clarified promptly“.
