It is a true political and judicial earthquake that has been hitting Genoa and Liguria since this morning. The president of the Region Giovanni Toti ended up under house arrest. Together with him his right-hand man and head of the cabinet office Matteo Cozzani and the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli. Even the CEO of Iren, a giant in the field of energy distribution, Paolo Emilio Signorini, in the past president of the port system authority of the western Ligurian Sea, is in prison.
What the magistrates discovered is a corruption system that had been going on for years, with big shots of Ligurian politics and business at the top, starting with the President of the Region, Giovanni Toti, who ended up under house arrest. He is accused of corruption, for having taken around 74 thousand euros to facilitate some building procedures, and of exchanging votes with the Cammarata mafia clan, originally from the province of Caltanissetta and with important branches in Liguria. In exchange for a package of votes Toti and his right-hand man, Cozzani, would have promised jobs to the clan’s affiliates. For Cozzani there is also the accusation of electoral corruption with the mafia aggravating circumstance. At the center of the corrupt activity was Aldo Spinelli, who for years managed the activities of the port of Genoa. It was precisely from a thirty-year extension in the management of a terminal in the Genoa airport made to Spinelli’s company that the magistrates began to investigate. After the renewal of the contract, transfers were made by Spinelli’s companies to finance Toti’s electoral committee. For the extension of the management of the terminal Paolo Emilio Signorini, at the time president of the port authority, now in prison, would have received in exchange free luxury stays and evenings with escorts. Another favor given to Spinelli was the possibility of redeveloping a wooded area with a sea view in Celle Ligure, where Spinelli’s company is building a citadel with ultra-luxury apartments. Finally, there would have been favors for the construction of Esselunga supermarkets, in exchange for electoral advertising. In this vein, a board member of the large-scale retail chain is being investigated. In these hours searches are underway in the offices of the Liguria Region and the magistrates have ordered the seizure of assets worth approximately 570 thousand
