A former municipal councilor of Palermo and a singer were arrested by the police and placed under house arrest, as ordered by the magistrate. Giulio Cusumano and Alessio Scarlata ended up in handcuffs, accused of fraud against the state and forgeries in public documents.
The investigation was launched after the complaint presented by a municipality official who said he had been subjected to "pressure and intimidation" by those arrested to encourage "friendly" cultural associations active in the Palermo theater world. The investigations, carried out through documentary and bank checks, concerned various administrative procedures aimed at assigning public funding for the realization of cultural, theatrical and social events that took place in the Sicilian capital.
In particular, in the context of "Palermo city of culture 2018", "the two accomplices, de facto managers of some cultural associations and hidden project organizers, in order to obtain the liquidation of the funding from the Sant'Elia Foundation, would presented an accounting report, containing false tax documentation with costs actually non-existent or clearly inflated for the preparation of cultural initiatives, using instead the sums received as a loan to pay off personal debts or for gifts to relatives and friends ".
Similar methods, the investigators add, would have been used for another project within the Pagliarelli prison.
(Unioneonline / ss)