Toti case, shipowner Aponte in Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office

Aponte, the investigators write, 'emphasised how the Authority did not adequately take into account the solidity of his companies, which were fruitfully present in many sectors of the Genoa airport, preferring to support Aldo Spinelli, who reported that he was about to sell his company'.

Aponte's voice again: "...That's enough now, I tell you the thing is going to end badly, because now either you give me this space or else I'll really sue you all, that's enough now because I'm fed up here, let's say kindness is taken for stupidity, that's enough, enough, in short it's indecent what's happening to our group, it's not acceptable, it's a lack of respect...". And again: 'Woe if you give this space to Spinelli, the end of the world will happen'.

In short, Aponte planned to turn to the judiciary; something, moreover, that a few months later, on 5 October, Spinelli also threatened, in a telephone call to Aponte in which, in turn, he stated that Signorini's predecessor at the helm of the port, Luigi Merlo, had (according to him) favoured Msc's interests.

"We're going badly,' Spinelli told Aponte, 'look, everything here is going to the Public Prosecutor's Office. But remember that one of those things that really breaks out here... because Mr Merlo, the one who did it at the Rinfuse, is one of those messes that you have no idea about'.

At the root of these conflicts, there are, among other things, the interests - on which the Public Prosecutor's Office would like to shed light - related to the Terminal Rinfuse, for which the company owned by Spinelli and Aponte received a 30-year concession. After the fiery phone calls, it was only in December 2022, with Signorini's mediation, that an agreement was reached between the entrepreneur and the shipowner (through Aponte's trusted man in Genoa, Alfonso Lavarello) on the terminal's structure.

Yesterday, however, the commissioner of the Genoa and Savona Port Authority, Paolo Piacenza, who is also under investigation in the enquiry (for abuse of office), resigned from his post and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport appointed, in his place, Admiral Massimo Seno, former commander of the Port Authority in La Spezia from 2017 to 2019, and today head of the 2nd Department of Legal Affairs and Institute Services at the General Command of the Port Authorities. Piacenza returns, however, to the Authority, in the role (which he previously held) of Secretary General of the Authority, to work alongside Seno.

"We take note," wrote the Deputy Minister for Infrastructure, Edoardo Rixi, in a note, "of the resignation" of Piacenza "from the role of extraordinary commissioner of the Adsp of the Western Ligurian Sea. On behalf of the ministry I would like to express my gratitude to him for the work he has done and the professionalism he has shown. We are confident that he will succeed in clarifying the charges, which we have recently read about in the press, and will continue to distinguish himself for quality and commitment'.