The former Covid Emergency Commissioner Domenico Arcuri, questioned last Saturday in Rome, is under investigation for abuse of office and embezzlement.
The investigation, which involves among others the entrepreneurs Mario Benotti, Andrea Vincenzo Tommasi and Edisson Jorge San Andres Solis, shed light on the first supplies of masks by the intermediary Mario Benotti.
According to the Capitoline prosecutors, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Paolo Ielo, a "business committee" had been set up made up of people eager to speculate on the epidemic and capable of interacting and influencing the choices of the public administration.
According to the prosecutors, those who have been part of this “business committee” have obtained “undue commissions” of over 77 million euros.
Arcuri had been registered in the register of suspects also for corruption, a crime for which the prosecutors of Rome requested the filing.
DANGEROUS MASKS - As part of the investigation, the Guardia di Finanza seized over 800 million masks from China that were found to be "not regular" on the orders of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The seizure activity was carried out at, among other things, at the national commissioner.
"The physical / chemical examination of the masks and protective devices purchased, carried out both by the Customs Agency of Rome" and by "consultants appointed" by the prosecutors showed that "most" of the devices for which the seizure was ordered "they do not meet the protective efficacy requirements required by the Uni En regulations" and "even some supplies have been deemed dangerous to health", reads the seizure decree of the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office.
The Dpi in question, both surgical masks and Ffp2 and Ffp3 or Kn95, did not pass the "paraffin aerosol" and "sodium chloride aerosol" tests. The magistrates write that "it appears necessary to proceed with the evidential seizure of all surgical masks and all protective devices currently in place. Both those belonging to matches deemed unsuitable, and those belonging to unexamined matches - potentially unsuitable or dangerous - not being based on the information obtained from the Commissarial Structure, it was possible to distinguish them from those of batches examined with regular results in order to guarantee the possibility of an appraisal, obviously necessary for the proof of criminal responsibility and for ascertaining suitability ".
