"I'm not a scammer". Roberto Diomedi , the 51-year-old from Sinnai investigated as the "mastermind" of the pyramid system that for the Cagliari prosecutor would have cheated thousands of investors throughout Italy for a total value of 4 and a half million euros , rejects the accusations.
He did so by answering questions from the preliminary investigation judge Ermengarda Ferrarese for two and a half hours and trying to explain his activity.
Defended by the lawyer Antonello Garau , the former financial borker - locked up for a few days in the Uta prison , after being arrested as soon as he landed at Elmas airport - also reiterated that he was authorized by concessions obtained in England .
The sister, Barbara Diomedi , defended by the lawyer Pierandrea Setzu and instead ended up under house arrest , availed herself of the right not to answer .
The precautionary measure also includes four recipients of residence obligations and another six reported on the loose.
The investigations are conducted by the Guardia di Finanza and the Postal Police and directed by the deputy prosecutor Diana Lecca .
The offenses are, for various reasons, those of criminal conspiracy aimed at financial unauthorization, fraud , money laundering and self-laundering.
For the Prosecutor's Office, the group would have set up a "Ponzi scheme" with the victims who were attracted to invest with the promise of interest up to 5% monthly , but then at the end of the year they paid almost nothing to the investors and did not return the capital invested. According to the method used in sequence, in fact, some investors were repaid by particularly favorable initial returns in a very short time, but with funds raised by new customers.
As mentioned, Diomedi would have denied that it was a scam, reiterating that the investment plans were real and that they would have yielded over time, but not with such high returns as those hypothesized by the investigators.
(Unioneonline / lf)
