«A systematic pursuit of personal interests». This is one of the most serious passages present in the indictment that the Venice Prosecutor's Office formulates against the mayor Luigi Brugnaro, investigated for alleged corruption in administrative acts together with the two "loyalists", the head and the deputy head of the cabinet, Morris Ceron and Derek Donadini. But it is the entire Ca' Farsetti facility that has been put on the blacklist by the deputy prosecutors Roberto Terzo and Federica Baccaglini: from the beginning, they write in the requests for precautionary measures in the investigation, "an administrative context characterized by a widespread illegitimacy" especially in the urban planning, construction and tendering sectors. And even those who "had evidence" of councilor Boraso's "commercialization of the public function", they add, "were however careful not to criticize him, to censor him, to denounce him".
All hypotheses of accusation to be proven, of course, and which the mayor flatly rejected, saying he was certain he would demonstrate "in the courtroom that he is a gentleman". Yet, it is precisely the castle built around the mayor's properties, the blind trust that was supposed to prevent him from any interference in private affairs, according to the prosecutors, that does not hold up. The blind fund, created in 2017, say the magistrates, "is ineffective", because "it is clear that Brugnaro has not actually divested his participation" in the companies. A trust in the hands of the "loyalists", who - by accumulating the two salaries, the public one and the private one, "have carried out and still carry out the role of administrators of the network of companies".
The history of the investigation, started in 2022 following a complaint from an entrepreneur from Treviso, is collected in a 940-page file. There are 32 people under investigation in total, including the Mobility Councilor Renato Boraso, and the aforementioned Ceron and Donadini. The Prosecutor's Office, in requesting precautionary measures, investigates all the other 28 entrepreneurs for the 11 alleged corrupt acts linked to Boraso and Brugnaro, and on a series of false invoicings to cover bribes to politicians by 14 companies in total. A separate case, again for corruption, linked to the negotiations for the sale of the Pili area and Palazzo Papadopoli, was also opened against the main accuser, the entrepreneur Claudio Vanin. Also included in the investigation register are Singaporean billionaire Ching Chiat Kwong, and his Italian emissary, Carlo Louis Lotti.
All the interference in administrative activity, the prosecutors note, "took place without any reaction or opposition from the officials", a sign that for them it was "consolidated and acceptable practice" . The spotlight pointed by the magistrates on Brugnaro has to do with the effective functioning of the blind trust, and with the Pili area, 41 hectares of polluted lagoon, purchased by the entrepreneur from Umana for 5 million euros, and whose "Making it profitable was Brugnaro's constant worry." Even when the deal - first proposed at 85 million, then at 150 million - fell through, «the interest in the profitable use of the Pili never ceased. Indeed, it can be stated, also in light of the interception activities, that it constitutes, permanently, a worry for the mayor." As for the fact that Brugnaro and his collaborators appear only as suspects in the investigation, this is due to the fact, the prosecutors write, that the crime charged for the sale of Palazzo Papadopoli - the preparatory operation for the purchase of the Pili - dates back to 2016, and "the passage of more than six years from the events makes the precautionary requirements obsolete".
(Unioneonline)
