Fabio D'Amato, manager and close collaborator of Chiara Ferragni, is also under investigation for aggravated fraud for the pandoro and Easter eggs cases in the investigation by the Milan Prosecutor's Office. This is what emerges from the ruling of the Court of Cassation on the territorial jurisdiction of the Milanese prosecutor's office to investigate.
After the conflict of jurisdiction between the Milanese investigators and those of Cuneo had been raised, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Cassation established that the Prosecutor's Office of the Lombardy capital should deal with the Ferragni-Balocco case because the contracts between the influencer's companies and the Piedmontese confectionery company, in relation to the sponsorship of the “Pink Christmas” pandoro, were signed in Milan.
The first considerations of the Prosecutor's Office on the case emerge from the papers: the "profit" of the alleged scams alleged against Chiara Ferragni for the cases of the Balocco pandoro, the Dolci Preziosi Easter eggs and the Trudi doll, also "consisted in the media strengthening of the image of the influencer" , because the entrepreneur has gained "from the growing consensus obtained by conveying a self-representation closely associated with personal commitment to charity" , i.e. charity.
There are "external indications, of an unequivocal nature" on a "unitary planning, within the same criminal plan" of the alleged scams accused of Chiara Ferragni, considering the "unitarity of the drive to commit crimes", the "analogy of the modus operandi”” and the “time lapse” between episodes . In all three cases, writes the Supreme Court prosecutor in his ruling, Ferragni published posts, stories and "misleading videos" for consumers on social media.
The "emphasis of the charitable purpose" in the promotional campaign for Pandoro Pink Christmas, "amplified by the means of communication" used, including social media, led "consumers into error", who "believed", through the purchase of the sweet at more than 9 euros compared to "around 3.68 euros" for the "traditional" one, to "contribute to the charitable purpose" , "whose seriousness was also guaranteed by the credibility of an influencer with around 30 million followers".
The deputy prosecutor also writes that the Court of Cassation "has recently stated that lying alone is sufficient in itself to integrate the constituent elements of the crime of fraud", being a typical form of "deception". In the decree, the Supreme Court judge also explains that from the analysis of the IT material, acquired by the Gdf, it appears that the "communication strategy" for the sale of that pandoro has "always been shared between the subjects involved in the affair". And "in the intentions of the parties, the desire to link the amount of the donation to the sales" of the dessert never seems to emerge.
(Unioneonline/D)
