Agnelli inheritance, the judge asks the public prosecutor to compulsorily indict John Elkann

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The gip of the court of Turin, Giovanna De Maria, has convened a new hearing for 11 February to study the brief presented by the defence of John Elkann, thus postponing the decision on the trial of the ceo of Exor. This, while in the other strand on the Agnelli inheritance, the gip Antonio Borretta ordered the prosecution to formulate the indictment against John for two of the six counts originally contested. Forced indictment because they are hypotheses of crime - related to the tax returns submitted after Marella Caracciolo's death - on which the prosecutor had asked for the archiving.

The decision, in fact, comes after the move by the Turin prosecutors who, having closed the preliminary investigations revolving around the inheritance of Donna Marella, widow of the lawyer Gianni Agnelli, had given their favourable opinion to the request for suspension of the proceedings, with probation presented, precisely, by Elkann. The same Public Prosecutor's Office had then requested the complete dismissal of the case for the two brothers, Lapo and Ginevra, and for the Swiss notary Robert Urs Von Gruningen for the offences of unfaithful declaration and fraud to the detriment of the State. With regard to John, on the other hand, a partial dismissal had been requested in relation to the offence of unfaithful declaration, limited to two years (but at the same time giving the green light to the trial, thus effectively closing the proceedings for the prosecution as well).

These requests have now been partly accepted by Judge Borretta (the proceedings are in fact two, intertwined but distinct), who has thus ordered the complete dismissal of the cases against Ginevra, Lapo and von Gruenigen, but only a partial dismissal for John Elkann and the accountant Gianluca Ferrero, in respect of whom the judge has ordered the public prosecutor to formulate charges for two of the six initially contested counts.

"While expressing our satisfaction for the dismissals ordered by the gip Borretta, his decision to impose the prosecutor to formulate the indictment for John Elkann and Gian Luca Ferrero is difficult to understand, because it is in contrast with the requests of the prosecutors, which were solid and well argued for all our clients" and for this "we will file an appeal for Cassation excepting the abnormality". These are the words of the lawyers who assist the Elkann brothers after the decision of the judge who ordered the complete archiving of Geneva, Lapo and the Swiss notary Robert Urs Von Gruningen, but partial for John Elkann and the accountant Gianluca Ferrero, for whom the judge ordered the prosecutor to formulate the compulsory indictment (the prosecutor had asked for the archiving). The other novelty is the choice of the other judge, Giovanna De Maria, to postpone the decision on the Exor CEO's probation until 11 February. The lawyers have submitted a brief with 'the legal reasons that support our position and we have insisted on granting the request'.

In any case, 'we reiterate our firm belief that the accusations made against John Elkann are without any foundation and we reaffirm our strong conviction that he has always acted correctly and in full compliance with the law'. His decision to 'adhere to an agreement does not imply any admission of liability and was in fact inspired only by the desire to rapidly close a very painful personal matter, all the more so after having defined with the Revenue Agency any possible dispute concerning the taxes potentially weighing on the Elkann brothers as heirs of Donna Marella Agnelli'.