Genoa, 16 May 2024 – Many people got on Aldo Spinelli’s boat. The entrepreneur himself says this during the interrogation before the investigating judge Paola Faggioni and to the pm Luca Monteverde. The former patron of Livorno, under house arrest like the Governor of Liguria Giovanni Toti as part of the corruption investigation, talks about what happened on board the ‘Leila’.
“I invited all my friends on the boat, not only… Garrone came, Mondini came, Schenone came, Burlando came. I go to eat there every day, it’s my restaurant”, continues Spinelli. The judge then asks if “he had made some requests to Toti regarding the practice of the Olmo beach to transform it from free to private”. And the entrepreneur replies: “in the most absolute way, we said: ‘Interested’ but we didn’t get anything, he didn’t do a … sorry term… He also sold himself that he solved the multi problem… which is not true. It’s clear that I was the only one I could turn to, who was he? The Port Authority did nothing, I turned to the governor of Liguria and said: ‘Oh but make these people here work a bit, there are 400 of them and they don’t do shit all day’.”
It was his son Roberto, he adds, who “went with the lawyers to the Region” to “see if it was possible to have the beach”. The prosecutor asks if Toti had been asked “to take an interest in obtaining this beach”. And Spinelli: “Yes, who was I talking to? I spend 2 and a half million and you don’t give me a piece of the beach? Toti said: “‘I’m interested, I see what I can do’ but he didn’t do anything.” Nell ‘interrogation, Spinelli also attacks Rino Canavesethe only member of the port authority management committee who opposed the resolution for the thirty-year extension granted to the entrepreneur on the bulk terminal.
“No one was able to do anything about the extension of the terminal” because of him, Spinelli records, adding: “there in the committee there is a gentleman who is practically the CEO of Gavio, which is number one on the Terminal Motorways in Novara and Genoa. In Savona go and see how much public money this gentleman who still has the courage to do interviews has invested in the terminal. Public… I did all the work in my terminal with my own money… do you have the courage to do the interview on Rai Uno? But he should keep quiet. He bought the locomotives with state money. ” And as for Paolo Emilio Signorini, concludes Spinelli, “he hasn’t sorted anything out for me. The person who sorted out the paperwork at the Port Authority is Gianluigi Aponte (not under investigation, ed)”.
About the former president of the Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority, arrested for corruption and acts contrary to official duties, Spinelli has no doubts. “He’s a good person. The wedding expenses are the only thing I gave to Signorini and he will pay me back by June or July next year when he will get his fourteenth salary and get the profits. I gave Signorini the 15,000 euros for the wedding, I don’t remember how I gave them, I believe in cash. I definitely gave them to him with the promise that he will return it to me by July of this year. He is a public man.”
In the substantial ordinance there is also a long list of weekends offered in Monte Carlo, expenses for the casino and gifts, but the ‘tsar’ of the Genoese port specifies: “He paid for the chips. He enjoyed my VIP card It turned out that when he went to change his money they put them on the VIP card. I guarantee it. If you want the croupiers are witnesses. He never showed himself to anyone. He sees that I’m telling the truth. The current account in Monte Carlo is as clear as Easter.”
As regards the work assignment promised to Signorini, an assignment that emerges in the precautionary custody order, Spinelli replied to the investigating judge: “He was desperate because his work was running out and I told us ‘Paolo, stop crying. We have 18 managers of of which the youngest is me who am 85 years old, a job we’ll find it for you, don’t worry, don’t worry… People like you can’t be found anywhere professionally…” concludes Spinelli.
