AGI – Political, administrative and judicial earthquake in Liguria regionwhere the president was arrested and placed under house arrest on charges of corruption Giovanni Toti. This morning the soldiers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Genoa executed a series of orders for the application of precautionary measures against not only the governor, but also Paolo Emilio Signoriniformer president of the Western Ligurian Sea System Port Authority and CEO of Iren, the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelliformer patron of Genoa and Livorno.
Signorini was sent to prison, while the other three were placed under house arrest. Precautionary measures were also taken for Roberto Spinelli, an entrepreneur in the logistics and real estate sector, recipient of the interdictory measure of the temporary ban on carrying out entrepreneurial and professional activities, accused of corruption against the President of the Liguria Region; Mauro Vianelloentrepreneur operating in the Port of Genoa (recipient of the interdictory measure of the temporary ban on carrying out entrepreneurial and professional activities, accused of corruption against Paolo Emilio Signorini); Francesco Moncadadirector of Esselunga SpA, also temporarily banned, accused of corruption against the President of the Liguria Region.
The origins of the investigation
An investigation that unites different strands, which turns the spotlight on the rooting of organized crime in Liguria and which focuses on the governor, suspended from his position and already replaced with the vice-president of the Region, Alessandro Piana. The investigation, coordinated directly by the prosecutor Nicola Piacente together with the deputies Francesco Pinto and Vittorio Ranieri Miniati and the deputies Luca Monteverde and Federico Manotti, started in 2020 from ahypothesis of electoral corruption formulated by the Prosecutor’s Office of La Spezia and coordinated by the chief prosecutor of La Spezia Antonio Patrono and the deputy Elisa Loris. It was the La Spezia Prosecutor’s Office that forwarded the documents to the Genoese Prosecutor’s Office, which in turn discovered a new Pandora’s box. The clues against the suspects were collected thanks to wiretaps and stalking and observation activities.
The investigation, as mentioned, initially concentrated on hypotheses of electoral corruption, and subsequently developed on specific events concerning financing, considered illicit, for the political group headed by the president of the Liguria Region, disbursements of various benefits in favor of the former president of Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, and the identification of the decisions requested, promised and/or adopted by the suspects in relation to the funding and benefits received. In the order, already sent to the parliamentary anti-mafia commission, it emerges that Matteo Cozzani “acted on a mandate received from Giovanni Toti during the 2020 electoral campaign, together with the Testa brothers, representatives of the Genoese Riesi community”, writes the investigating judge Paola Faggioni of the Court of Genoa, in the order that led to the arrest of, among others, the Ligurian governor.
Cozzani, former mayor of Portovenere and Toti’s chief of staff is under house arrest. “Cozzani – he continues – as coordinator of the list “Let’s change with Toti as president”, acted to obtain, to the advantage of the list of the presidential candidate Giovanni Toti and of some candidates, Ilario Cavo, Laura Lauro and Stefano Anzalone, the vote of the members of the Riesi community of Genoa, promising to the voters, through the Testa brothers, as a compensation essentially jobs intended for the same voters, or for people linked to them by family or friendly relationships. This occurred through agreements and pacts that Cozzani signed on Toti’s ‘mandate'”.
Relations with the clans
It is precisely the figure of the Testas that establishes, once again, the presence of organized crime in Liguria, deeply rooted in the territory and with many links to local politics and business. By abandoning traditional bloody methods, “the Sicilian mafia association has developed a sort of careful camouflage, aimed on the one hand at making it difficult for investigators to collect evidence, and on the other to avoid strong counterproductive social alarm”, writes the investigating judge. In this case, “the electoral bribes were carried out on the occasion of electoral consultations on 20 and 21 September 2020 and involved subjects close to the circles of the Riesi familya mafia gang rooted in Genoa in the Certosa district”.
The presence of Riese people in the province of Genoa has been established since 1985, as certified by a ruling from the Court of the Ligurian capital. As far as the earthquake in the Liguria region is concerned, the people from Riese are the Testa brothers: Arturo Angelo Testa and Italo Maurizio Testa, recipients of the obligation to reside in the Municipality of Boltiere, accused of the crime of electoral corruption, aggravated by art. 416-bis.1 of the criminal code as it was committed in order to facilitate the activity of the Cosa Nostra mafia association, specifically the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district with projection in the city of Genoa.
The two twins were also called into question during the planning of the mayor’s re-election campaign Marco Bucci. In a phone call intercepted on 13 February 2022, between Toti, Bucci and Cozzani, talking about finding resources for the electoral campaign (estimated at 250 thousand euros), the governor calls the Riese people into question. But the name, writes the investigating judge, “arouses a worried reaction from Cozzani” who declares “stay away from those there, they’ll put us in jail”.
The port world is shaking
An investigation that makes the port world tremble quite a bit and one of the leading events in Liguria: the Boat show. In fact, there are also the president of Confindustria nautica, Saverio Cecchi, and the commercial director of the Genoa Boat Show, Alessandro Campagna, on the list of those under investigation for corruption by the Prosecutor’s Office of La Spezia, in the wake of the main investigation in Genoa. For Cecchi and Campagna, the ban on business and office activities, on practicing professions, businesses or management offices was triggered. The precautionary measures, taken in Genoa, were motivated in detail by the investigating judge in the over 600-page order: for Giovanni Toti they were taken due to “the concrete current danger that the suspect will commit other serious crimes”, in particular “that he may repeat on the occasion of the next elections similar corrupt conduct, putting one’s function at the service of private interests in exchange for benefits for oneself and others”. These precautionary needs “can essentially be deduced from the very methods of conduct which reveal a clear systematic nature of the corruption mechanism”.
The investigating judge adds that “they are also considered to exist given the current and concrete danger of evidentiary pollution”, i.e. that the suspect “gets in contact with other suspects to develop a common strategy”, or that he contacts people “able to provide circumstances useful for the purposes of a convenient reconstruction of events”. For Cozzani, the precautionary requirements (for house arrest) are also applied on the basis of the “surprising ease shown in carrying out the corrupt conduct”. For Spinelli, also under house arrest, “the judge speaks of “evident systematicity of the corruption mechanism for the achievement of his own entrepreneurial interests”. The situation is even more serious for the CEO of Iren, Paolo Emilio Signorini, the only one in prison: the investigating judge speaks of a “personality completely oblivious to the public interest and the principles of impartiality and good performance of the public function carried out, made available and service of private interests in order to obtain ius exchange of personal benefits (balance of expenses for the marriage of the daughter, luxury stays, promises of prestigious work assignments)”.
For the judge, the systematic nature of the corruption mechanism, implemented over a long period of time and with two different port entrepreneurs, is alarming, demonstrating a lack of awareness of the very important public role played”.
For mayor Bucci “there is a city to carry forward”
Meanwhile, while the Pd and M5S ask for the resignation of Toti and his team, an outcry comes from the regional council and the mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci: “There is a city to carry forward with a strategic plan, very precise and 7 billion to be put on land and at sea – said the mayor – On this we are moving forward at an even greater speed and the message is that we need to do things, do them even better and obviously be careful that there is no type of pollution I’m just saying that we will do everything we can to ensure that the institutions are not blocked, indeed it must be a message to move forward. Then I am a guarantee, obviously and therefore I want to wait for all levels of judgement trust in the judiciary”.
Bucci added that “I comment on what my part is, that is, that of the city and what our administrations must do for the city, which will continue not only at the same speed as before, with the same tenacity as before and the same strength than before, but perhaps even more so, precisely to demonstrate that things must be done well. Do you remember what I said after the collapse of Morandi? On our knees, indeed, we are on our feet and with even greater energy, because we want to demonstrate that things are done well.” Finally, “from a human point of view it can only displease me, but maybe there is nothing, so it is useless to make these comments now because they make little sense. What makes sense now is to say that we need to take things forward and do them in the best way possible.”
For the regional councilor for urban planning, Marco Scajola, a Toti loyalist and member of his list, Toti is “a person who we consider honest, correct, who works every day in the interest of Liguria. We hope that this sad affair can be clarified as soon as possible as short as possible and can, in the shortest possible time, return to carrying out the work that it is carrying out with great determination and great courage. In recent years, it is clear to all. But there are already those, like FdI, a historic exponent of the coalition, who are considering resignation. This time Toti will be watching from his home in Ameglia. Lawyer Stefano Savi stated that he will be able to explain everything. For his part, he claims to be “very calm”.
