«But Beppe ... what is this post? I am speechless! You would do well to check before posting certain things! Really bad! ». Maria Giovanna Lai, social profile, facebookiana of iron, does not send him to tell. He writes it directly, under one of the posts that "burn" in the blog of Giuseppe Piero Grillo, aka Beppe. The same question, with quite another impetuousness, was posed by the magistrates of the Milan pool, the Public Prosecutor's Office which is currently overturning the telephone records of the magic circle of the Five Stars, the one who dealt with relations with the patron of Mascalzone Latino , that Vincenzo Onorato, capable, like few others, of slipping into the ganglia of politics and subsidizing it far and wide, from right to left. To ask for news of that post on the "honesty blog" signed by Onorato, however, the investigators did not go to facebook. They preferred to entrust their curiosity to a "decree of local search, personal on computer systems and contextual seizure" (in the photo). Not a joke. The investigation bursts into the political stage on the eve of the secret count for the election of the future Head of State. The blitz of the Guardia di Finanza is coordinated, studied in detail. They know where to look and, above all, what to find.
Loving messages
And they find everything: loving little messages to save their friend Vincenzo, so as not to make his shipping companies go bankrupt, perhaps by making him extend that “brilliant” service of territorial continuity to and from Sardinia. And above all they find reports of bank transfers, pseudo advertising contracts for some post by Onorato, complete with a threatening face, on the Grillo Blog, paid as if it were an editorial advertisement in a national newspaper. In the data room of the Palazzaccio in Milan, seat of the most powerful prosecutor in Italy, it is time to rewind the tape, crossing encrypted and explicit messages, trying to frame dates and actions, pressures and underground interventions to restore oxygen to Onorato's companies . One thing is certain: Sardinia, with its territorial continuity by sea, was one of the cornerstones of that river of under-the-table relations, which first became a lobby and then government action. Neither the Sardinians nor the Region dictated the conditions for breaking the isolation of the island. To regulate Mascalzone Latino's system there was a dense web of relationships that Onorato, from time to time, formed with politics, regardless of the right or the left. The allocated budget had no colors. To Giuseppe Piero Grillo, "the friend Beppe", he had allocated 240 thousand euros, ten thousand euros a month, from 2018 to 2019, to be "reclaimed" in the anonymous branch of the unknown bank Passadore in Nervi, a stone's throw from the villa of the founder of the Five Stars. Reason without preamble: advertising on Beppe Grillo's blog. A "misunderstood" relationship, says Onorato.
Prophetic comments
Certainly the comments to each post of the sailor who became the owner are a river in flood. Insults and taunts, irony and anger, without respite. Nothing, however, stops the two. The partnership is not discouraged, on the contrary. Those posts on display, complete with a presentation, once by “Beppe” and sometimes directly by “Vincenzo”, are just the facade of what happens in the chats that have ended up in the hands of the Milan prosecutor's office. Now the investigators will have to put the pieces of a "complex" picture back in place. The accusation is as heavy as a ship full of suspicions and certainties. The crime, the one we are discussing, was invented by the Five Stars: trafficking in illicit influences. The magistrates of the pool, after having ascertained the passage of money, it is up to understand how much those "influences" conveyed by the patron of the grillini to his parliamentary and governmental leaders have breached specific and circumscribed acts. For the attention of the magistrates, however, there is an unwritten chapter: "the omission or delay of an act of his office".
Wide range
The spectrum of the Judges, Maurizio Romanelli and Cristina Roveda, therefore, is much broader: it ranges from completed acts to those omitted or delayed. Obligatory, to understand every step of this story, it is necessary to shift the lens of the investigation on the island of Sardinia, or rather on its sea, on business and speculation in maritime transport. In the period covered by the financial relations between Onorato, Beppe Grillo and Casaleggio Associati, for them 600,000 euros a year for two years, at least four are the most significant episodes that involved the dicasteries led by pentastellated representatives. After all, the award-winning company "Onorato & C." it was going through the most devastating financial shock in its history. The only way to try and save the boat was politics. In those messages that the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office is vivisecting, however, there is not everything that happened in the meanders of the buildings of Rome, from Porta Pia, the seat of the Ministry of Infrastructures to via Veneto, in what was once the department of Industry, then transformed into economic development. Behind Sardinia, millionaire games, golden conventions, renewals, extensions, bailouts and state gifts were being played.
The Sardinian continuity
The first major issue is territorial continuity, the one from and to Sardinia. The agreement, which gave Onorato 72 million euros a year, was set to expire on July 18, 2020. The Ministry of Infrastructure, which had signed it in 2012, and therefore had to reissue it, was "occupied" from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019 by Danilo Toninelli, Five Star Minister. He is one of the leading exponents with whom Grillo talks about the Onorato dossier. He, Toninelli, denies any pressure. In the proceedings of the Prosecutor is not investigated. At that juncture, however, there are some relevant episodes that will necessarily end up in the spotlight of the magistrates.
The letter from the Authority
The first is from March 4, 2019. Toninelli is Minister of Infrastructure. The Authority for Competition and the Market writes directly to the exponent of the 5 stars. The communication concerns the Onorato agreement for the connections between Sardinia and the Continent. The Guarantor writes: "The possible merger between Moby and CIN even after 18 July 2020 does not seem in any way a circumstance that could justify an exception to the principles mentioned above and, therefore, allow for a possible extension of the Convention with respect to its natural expiration ". As if to say, if you are thinking of extending the convention, get it out of your head. The subsequent provision is even more explicit: "Therefore, the Authority hopes that this dicastery will proceed, according to an appropriate timing with respect to the deadline of 18 July 2020". The message is clear: don't waste time. The risk is that, by not giving the green light to the tender procedures, we arrive late and are "forced" to extend the millionaire agreement. Exactly what the patron of Mascalzone Latino aspired to. And the Authority leaves him no way out: "The conduct of a new tender for the assignment of the maritime cabotage service within the originally scheduled times appears, in fact, to be the most appropriate instrument".
Do the races
The next relevant step, confirming the previous one, is on March 13, 2019. The Authority for the regulation of transport takes paper and pen with resolution 22/2019. The deed has no appeal: here's how to make tenders for the assignment of maritime transport services for passengers to, between and the Islands. The object of the resolution is all too clear: the tenders for the assignment of routes in territorial continuity to and from Sardinia must be redone immediately. The provision even prepares the agreement schemes to be included in the tender specifications, from the type of ships to the service to be offered in the connections to Sardinia. Nothing will happen. Toninelli will leave the dicastery on 5 September 2019, there is no trace of the tenders. A few months later there will be an extension to Onorato.
The forgotten sentence
The other delicate transition took place on June 5, 2019, four days after Toninelli took office in the Porta Pia offices. The TAR confirms the "sentence" of the Competition Authority against Moby-Cin for having abused the dominant position in the Sardinian seas and having "boycotted" Sardinian operators. The accusation is very heavy and takes the form of a very serious violation of the agreement between Onorato and the State. There are the reasons for the revocation of the contract with Cin-Tirrenia. At Porta Pia, however, once again, nothing will happen.
Relay on Tirrenia
Change the government. Count two takes over. Toninelli is discharged and Stefano Patuanelli becomes the leading role, who is not investigated in this matter. The rank is that of the key Ministry of Economic Development. Not long after taking office that even the new Minister finds himself catapulted into the Onorato affair. The judges of the Court of Rome, on March 4, 2020, ruled: the precautionary seizure was ordered up to the amount of 55 million euros "on all assets, movable or immovable, as well as credits owned by Cin." The request of the liquidators of Tirrenia in extraordinary administration was accepted, those who on behalf of the Ministry of Patuanelli must recover the 180 million euros that Onorato "forgot" to return to the State.
Don't seize the money
The pentastellato Minister squares together with his colleague De Micheli of Infrastructures and launches an appeal to the commissioners: do not seize Onorato's money, move the precautionary seizure on the ships. No sooner said than done. The patron of Mascalzone Latino is safe, for the umpteenth time. Now, however, those posts by Onorato in the Grillino Blog, together with the large amount of money given to “Beppe” and “Casaleggio”, have reopened the Tirrenia - Sardinia dossier. This time, however, from Porta Pia, in Rome, the papers will move directly to Corso di Porta Vittoria, in the heart of Milan, inside the Palazzaccio, seat of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office. Post scriptum: yesterday in the same building Onorato filed a new bailout proposal for its companies. Who knows if he has also attached the pentastallated messages. Certainly there are those sent to the United States of America.
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