The president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti under house arrest as part of an investigation by the Genoese DDA and the Financial Police. The accusation is corruption.
The precautionary measures were taken against nine other people, including Aldo Spinelli , entrepreneur and former president of Genoa and former patron of Livorno, and Paolo Emilio Signorini , former president of the Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority, now CEO of Iren, who ended up in prison.
The investigation, coordinated by prosecutors Federico Manotti and Luca Monteverde , accuses the governor of having accepted promises of various loans from Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto and of having received a total of 74,100 euros in exchange for several commitments : those of "finding a solution" for the transformation of the Punta Dell'Olmo beach from free to private; facilitate the process of a building procedure relating to the Punta Dell'Olmo real estate complex of interest to the Spinellis and pending at the regional offices; speed up and approve the renewal procedure for thirty years of the concession of the Terminal Rinfuse to Terminal Rinfuse Genova Srl (55% controlled by Spinelli); assign the former Carbonile ITAR and Carbonile Levante port spaces to Spinelli; assign to Spinelli a state-owned area used by the concessionaire Società Autostrade; facilitate the entrepreneur in the practice of "tombing" Calata Concenter.
Matteo Cozzani, chief of staff and Toti's right-hand man, also ended up under house arrest, accused of electoral corruption, aggravated because, according to the accusation, he facilitated the activities of Cosa Nostra . In particular, it would have favored the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district with projection in the city of Genoa.
Also under investigation was Francesco Moncada, director of Esselunga spa , subjected to a temporary ban from carrying out his entrepreneurial and professional activity.
Toti and Cozzani were accused of having accepted Moncada's promise of illicit financing represented by the hidden payment of some advertising passages on the panel displayed on the Colombo Terrace for the 2022 municipal election campaign , in exchange for the commitment to unblock two practices of Esselunga pending in the Region relating to the opening of two sales points in Sestri Ponente and Savona respectively.
The magistrates also ordered the seizure of assets for a total of 570 thousand euros .
Matteo Cozzani as regional coordinator of the electoral campaign for the "Let's change with Toti Presidente" list, Italo Maurizio Testa and Arturo Angelo Testa, as representatives of the Riesi community of Genoa, are challenged (in competition with the president of the Liguria Region, for whom no precautionary/interdictory measure was requested in relation to this crime) also the crime of electoral corruption on the occasion of the electoral consultations of the Liguria Region on 20 and 21 September 2020 .
According to the accusation, they " promised jobs and the change of public housing to channel the votes of voters belonging to the Riesi community of Genoa (at least 400 preferences) and in any case Sicilians towards the "Let's change with Toti President" list , as well as towards the suspect Stefano Anzalone and some other candidates from the aforementioned list, the latter subjected to investigations".
TOTI «SEREN» – «I spoke to the president, my client is calm and plans to explain everything ». Giovanni Toti's lawyer Stefano Savi said this. The governor, added Savi, «will continue to work. As we have been able to see up to now, these are all facts to which we can give an explanation within the context of a legitimate administrative activity for the public interest."
(Unioneonline)