Agnelli inheritance, John Elkann to be heard in civil case

The civil lawsuit brought by Margherita Agnelli over issues revolving around the inheritance of her father, Gianni Agnelli, has resumed in Turin. The proceedings had been suspended by the subalpine court in June last year with an order partially annulled by the Court of Cassation. Margherita's legal initiative concerns her children John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann. Judge Nicoletta Aloj, dissolving the reservation, announced the reopening of the case, ordering Margherita's counterpart to produce a series of documents and ordering the hearing of some people as witnesses: among them is John Elkann. The case was adjourned to 2 December.

The judge ruled that before bringing the case back before the panel, a preliminary investigation into some of the pieces of evidence put forward by both parties should be undertaken. Hence the decision to take documents and testimonies (about twenty in all according to a first reading of the order). However, requests to introduce into the proceedings a series of papers relating to Dicembre, the family 'safe' that controls the group's companies, were not admitted. In 2004, Margherita Agnelli renounced her father's inheritance in exchange for €1.2 billion. Her legal action is aimed at challenging the validity of the wills by which her mother, Marella Caracciolo, named John, Lapo and Ginevra as heirs. The judge ordered the Elkann brothers to produce documents relating to financial companies and bank accounts abroad that were allegedly in Marella's possession. The Swiss notary Urs von Grueningen (who was the executor of the will) will have to produce the material relating to the inventory operations carried out, after the woman's death, at the opening of the succession, including the "reconnaissance of the hereditary assets, also in relation to the investigations carried out on the foreign accounts of the offshore companies, and the inventory on the same that may have been carried out".

From a reading of the order, it emerges that the focus is on "bank relations or financial companies" that were "formally in the name of Marella Caracciolo or in any case referable to her". It therefore appears that one of the objectives of the investigative proceedings is the reconstruction of Marella's assets after the death of her husband, Gianni Agnelli. The judge has reserved the right, in this regard, to acquire (the decision will be made on the basis of developments in the proceedings) the inventories of the contents of the Agnelli Will 'as from 2003'.