“Let’s not go into the merits of the relations between Lucio Presta and Amadeus, and we are not interested in the personal and economic issues between the host and his former agent, but Presta’s statements regarding possible violations of Rai provisions deserve to be studied in depth to understand, in the interests of users, whether there have been irregularities, so as the manager would have stated”. He explains it to Adnkronos the president of Codacons, Carlo Rienzi. The reference is to Presta’s statements made in a recent interview, according to which in relation to ‘Arena Suzuki’, a program produced by Arcobaleno Tre (the company of which Presta sold his shares but remains manager), Amadeus would have asked “that that the artistic direction was paid by the company and that 100 percent of the ownership rights of the format were recognized” and Presta’s son would have partially given in to the host’s requests by awarding him 90 thousand euros.
Money which – again according to Presta – Amadeus would have regularly invoiced with the wording ‘artistic direction’, “in contravention”, claims the manager, to a circular from the Rai Supervisory Commission. Rienzi explains: “In fact, a circular from the Rai Supervisory Authority establishes that it is ‘in the specific interest of the concessionaire company to prevent artists and hosts from benefiting from unjustified advantageous positions, devoid of any market feedback’ and that ‘it is not acceptable to make every host become, perhaps even those who have grown professionally in Rai, a separate format, with the risk that this procedure is actually surreptitiously used to collect greater compensation’ – says the president of the consumer association – Circular which commits to equipping Rai with tools suitable to verify that external formats do not constitute a surreptitious means to further increase the salaries of artists, presenters and journalists’”.
“In light of these provisions and Lucio Presta’s statements, we have decided to present a exposed to the Rai Supervisory Commission itself and to the Anti-Corruption Authorityso that they verify the truthfulness of the manager’s declarations and ascertain, in the exclusive interest of Rai users, any violations of the existing provisions, adopting the appropriate measures”, concludes Rienzi.
