Day of guarantee interrogations at the Palace of Justice in Genoa as part of the investigation that shook the Ligurian political and industrial world, bringing governor Giovanni Toti under house arrest. The Esselunga board member Francesco Moncada appeared before the investigating judge Paola Faggioni, husband of the heiress of the group Marina Caprotti, accused of corruption for […]
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Day of warrant interrogations at the Palace of Justice in Genoa as part of the investigation that shook the Ligurian political and industrial world, leading to the House arrest the governor Giovanni Toti. In front of the investigating judge Paola Faggioni the board member of Esselunga introduced himself Francesco Moncadahusband of the group’s heir Marina Caprottiaccused of corruption for paying some advertising passages in support of the “Toti per Bucci” list in the 2022 municipal elections and banned from holding office at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office. According to the accusation, in exchange for the illicit financing Moncada obtained the speeding up of some procedures for the opening of Esselunga sales points in Liguria. The manager made it spontaneous statements: as stated in a note from his lawyers – coordinated by the former Minister of Justice Paola Severino – “he underlined in particular that on the occasion of the meeting held on 17 March 2022 at the headquarters of the Region (when the agreement would have been finalized corruptive, ed) has always intended to act in full compliance with the law and in absolute transparency. As can be seen from the text of the wiretaps, he has always expressed his desire to act in broad daylight and has therefore denied having entered into any illicit agreement.”
In reality, it appears from the environmental interceptions that, in the context of that meeting, the interlocutors decided to get rid of cell phones for fear that a trojan, the virus that turns them into recorders. “An indistinguishable voice asks to turn off something (“then let’s turn off this one…”) and Moncada immediately afterwards states: “I’m going to put this one away”, we read in the order. It is clear”, writes the investigating judge, “how reference is made to the opportunity to turn off or put smartphones aside for fear that the conversation could be intercepted.” The businessman also arrived at the Court around lunch time Aldo Spinelli, under house arrest since last Tuesday together with Toti, who according to the accusation he bribed with a total of 74,100 euros in electoral funding. He probably won’t answer, but it is not excluded that he could make spontaneous statements in his turn. He chose to answer his son instead Robertoentrepreneur, subjected to the precautionary measure of ban from professional activity: his lawyer Andrea Vernazza he did not want to go into detail, however defining the interrogation as “positive”
Meanwhile, from the papers filed by the Prosecutor’s Office it emerges that, during the investigations for electoral corruption on the votes of the Riesi community in the 2020 Regional elections, the investigators discovered a huge fraud of one million and 200 thousand euros on health supplies during Covid, in particular the masks. “Investigations were carried out against a criminal association, promoted and headed by Yuri Fergemberger and Edoardo Boldrini and made up of various associates and associates, which, taking advantage of the health emergency resulting from the spread of Covid-19, carried out multiple of illicit marketing of health products, in defiance of even basic health protection regulations and with the exclusive aim of maximizing one’s illicit profits”. The point of reference for becoming suppliers of the schools and therefore of the Region had to be the regional councilor Totiano Domenico Cianciconsidered by investigators to be the procurer of Sicilian and Calabrian votes.
On the health front, a further file is open in the Prosecutor’s Office regarding: numerous payments – all regular and tracked – carried out in recent years to the Toti committee and the Change foundation (reportable to the governor) by private healthcare entrepreneurs active in Liguria: Iclas, Casa della Salute, Villa Montallegro, On Health Care Group. The investigators want to verify whether, in exchange for the larger transfers, measures favorable to the companies have been received from the regional administration. At the moment, no crime has been formalized and no manager is under investigation. Toti has certainly always had a friendly orientation towards clinics: among the objectives of his government he explicitly mentioned the privatization of at least 20% of healthcare provision regional. In this sense, in recent years an important plan to put public hospitals on the market (Albenga, Bordighera, Cairo Montenotte, Rapallo) has been launched and partly completed. And during Covid, Liguria was a pioneer in entrusting vaccinations to private individuals, even opening a mixed-management maxi-hub with Genoa Fair in which doctors hired by Confindustria, Confartigianato, Confcommercio and Legacoop worked: among them also those of Villa Montallegro, which had financed Toti’s electoral campaign for the Regional elections.
