Toti under house arrest, the gip: he interfered in four elections

No clockwork investigation since 'our request is five months old, on 27 December to be precise'. Prosecutor Nicola Piacente told reporters at the courthouse. "The order only arrived yesterday and was therefore executed this morning," he concluded.

'We are very calm'. So said Governor Giovanni Toti as he returned to his flat in Genoa escorted by plainclothes Guardia di Finanza personnel. The governor, who appeared tired, was holding the over 600-page order from the Public Prosecutor's Office. Toti could now go to his home in Ameglia, near La Spezia, where he has been placed under house arrest for the corruption investigation.

The Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio expressed perplexity about the intervention of the Genoese judiciary: 'I do not know the acts and as a garantist I always think about the presumption of innocence. I understand, however, that these are facts that date back several years and that the investigation did not start today but some time ago," said the Guardasigilli. 'I have been a public prosecutor for 40 years,' said the former magistrate, 'and I have rarely asked for precautionary measures after years of investigation. My perplexities are never about the moment in which the precautionary measure is triggered with respect to the imminence of elections,' but 'if I have technical perplexities they concern a measure with respect to the time in which the crime was committed and the investigation began.

The Guardia di Finanza carried out a series of searches and acquisitions in Toti's Genoa flat, in Piazza Piccapietra, in the presence of the governor himself. His lawyer Savi should also be with the regional president. Searches were also carried out in the offices of the Regional Council, in Via Fieschi.

"I have spoken with the president, my client is calm and counts on explaining everything," said Toti's lawyer Stefano Savi as he left the flat with the governor and the Guardia di Finanza. Toti, Savi said, 'will continue to work. As we have been able to see up to this moment, these are all facts to which we can give an explanation within the framework of a legitimate administration activity for the public interest'.

Precautionary measures were also adopted for 9 other people, including Matteo Cozzani, Toti's chief of staff: he is accused of electoral bribery, aggravated by the circumstance of Article 416-bis.1 of the Italian Criminal Code because, according to the prosecution, he allegedly facilitated the activities of Cosa Nostra. In particular, he allegedly facilitated the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district with projection in the city of Genoa. He is also charged with corruption for the exercise of his function.

Also under house arrest is the logistics and real estate entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli. In jail the former president of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority Paolo Emilio Signorini, today CEO of Iren, the multi-utility company born from the merger between the former municipalities of Turin, Genoa, Reggio Emilia, Parma and Piacenza, which declined on the stock exchange following the news of his arrest. According to the investigation, the entrepreneur allegedly gave money to Toti to obtain favours in return, such as the concession for the areas of the Rinfuse terminal.

The promise of jobs and better housing flats in order to channel the votes of voters belonging to the Riesi (Caltanissetta) community in Genoa (at least 400 preferences) towards the 'Cambiamo con Toti Presidente' list and towards the suspect Stefano Anzalone and some other candidates of the aforementioned list who are not under investigation. These are the charges of electoral bribery for the chief of staff and regional coordinator of the electoral campaign for the list 'Cambiamo con Toti Presidente' Cozzani, who has been charged with the aggravating circumstance of Article 416-bis.1.

With regard to Paolo Emilio Signorini, Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli, the judge also ordered the preventive seizure of financial assets and property for a total amount of more than EUR 570,000, considered to be profits from the alleged corruption offences.

Also under investigation Francesco Moncada , a board member of Esselunga S.p.A., who was temporarily banned from exercising his entrepreneurial and professional activities on charges of corruption. The same measure for Roberto Spinelli, an entrepreneur in the logistics and real estate sector, son of Aldo Spinelli, and for Mauro Vianello, an entrepreneur working in the Port of Genoa, accused of bribery against Signorini, former president of the port.

The investigation stems from the transmission of acts for competence from the La Spezia Public Prosecutor's Office, which carried out investigations in a related case, in which an order for the application of precautionary measures issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the La Spezia Court was executed today.

The evidence against the suspects was gathered during wiretapping, surveillance and observation activities, which were carried out after the transmission of the documents by the La Spezia Public Prosecutor's Office. The investigation, which initially focused on hypotheses of electoral bribery, has subsequently developed into specific events concerning funding deemed unlawful for the political team headed by Giovanni Toti, disbursements of various utilities deemed unlawful in favour of the former President of the Port Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, the identification of the decisions solicited, promised and/or adopted by the suspected public officials in exchange for funding and utilities received. Searches ordered by the Public Prosecutor's Office are in progress.

The President of the Liguria Region is accused of having accepted promises of various funding from Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli and received a total of€74.100 euro for several commitments: those of "finding a solution" for the transformation of the Punta Dell'Olmo beach from "free" to "private"; facilitating the procedure of a building file related to the Punta Dell'Olmo real estate complex of interest to Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli and pending at the regional offices; speeding up and approving the renewal practice for thirty years of the concession of the Terminal Rinfuse to Terminal Rinfuse Genova S.r.l. (55% controlled by Spinelli) pending before the Management Committee of the Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority, which was approved on 2.12.2021; assign to Spinelli the former Carbonile ITAR and Carbonile Levante port spaces (assigned on 7.6.22 and on 19.12.22); assigning Spinelli a state-owned area in use by the concessionaire Società Autostrade (ASPI); facilitating the entrepreneur in the practice of the "tombamento" of Calata Concenter (approved by the Management Committee on 29.7.2022).

Governor Toti and his chief of staff Matteo Cozzani are also accused of accepting Francesco Moncada's (Esselunga's board member) promise of illicit financing in the form of the hidden payment of some advertising space on the panel displayed on the Terrazza Colombo for the municipal election campaign of 1922, in exchange for a commitment to unblock two Esselunga files pending in the Region concerning the opening of two shops in Sestri Ponente and Savona respectively.

Signorini is accused of having accepted various benefits from Aldo Spinelli and Mauro Vianello. Benefits for speeding up the scheduling of the file in the Management Committee (which he chaired) for the renewal of the concession of Terminal Rinfuse to Terminal Rinfuse Genova S.r.l. (55% controlled by Spinelli S.r.l.) and for renewing the said concession for thirty years. And again, for favouring Aldo Spinelli in the concession of further port areas in the remaining three years of his term of office at the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, and in particular in the concession of the Enel areas (former Carbonile) and in the practice of the "tombamento" of Calata Concenter; for allowing Aldo Spinelli an unauthorised occupation of the area of the former Carbonile on the eastern side North and South in the absence of a legitimising title.

Spinelli allegedly gave 15.000 euros in cash to Paolo Emilio Signorini on 14 July 2022; during the period from 31 December 21 to 12 March 2023, he allegedly procured for Signorini 22 luxury stays in Monte Carlo at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, for a total of 42 nights, including casino games and extra services such as room service, massages and beauty treatments a tent spot on the hotel's beach during the summer period and participation in exclusive events, such as the final of the international tennis tournament "Rolex Monte Carlo Masters" or themed evenings with an accompanying musical performance, reserved for the Casino de Monte Carlo's most important clients, for a total value of more than 42000 euros, as well as chips to place bets at the Monte Carlo Casino, a Chanel bag (gift intended for third parties). On 31 December 2021, a Cartier brand gold bracelet to the value of €7,200 (gift intended for third parties).

Also in 2022 in having offered Signorini a position with a salary of EUR 300,000 per year once his term as president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea had ended. Signorini is also alleged to have received from Mauro Vianello (owner of 54.19% of the shares of the company Santa Barbara, active in the field of business relating to transport and communications and specialised in the services of Prevention, Vigilance and First Fire Fighting within the port of Genoa), in exchange for a measure that ordered an increase in the hourly rate for the services of the supplementary service of the company Santa Barbara S.r.l., the payment of the invoice dated 27/06/2022 for an amount of over EUR 6,000 issued in favour of Paolo Emilio Signorini by the company in charge of the organisation of the wedding banquet of Signorini's daughter, an Apple watch worth EUR 439, a stay in the flat owned by Vianello from 3.8.2022 to 10.8.2022, made available by the entrepreneur to Paolo Emilio Signorini's wife and daughter.

In addition to the order issued by the Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office concerning an investigation for electoral bribery in which Toti is involved, there is another investigation underway in La Spezia that has led to a series of precautionary measures. The suspects, who are somehow connected to the mother enquiry in the Ligurian capital, are about ten.

Immediate political reactions. 'Based on the news that has come to light, the regional group of the 5 Star Movement is calling for the resignation of the Ligurian regional government. Over the years, we have repeatedly reported and denounced, even with complaints, various operations that are at least questionable. The operation of the Colonie Bergamasche or the sale of the former Santa Margherita hospital, in addition to the hundreds of activities involving certain 'sponsorships' and the use of public funds. The news is not good for our region'. This was stated by M5S regional group leader Fabio Tosi with his group colleague Paolo Ugolini. "The investigation has just come out, there are precise facts and serious accusations", President Toti "draw the consequences to keep the institutions safe" adds Movement leader Giuseppe Conte. "These arrests confirm something we have been saying for a long time and about which politics and the media pretend nothing: there is a problem of a moral issue, of corruption, of contamination between politics and business, there is a price list from North to South" for votes that are bought with "10,20 euro up to 50 euro. We cannot pretend nothing is happening, it is a very serious wound to democracy,' Conte added.

Supporting the Ligurian governor was Defence Minister Guido Crosetto: 'I am in the habit of reading the papers, and when I read the accusations against Toti I didn't quite understand. Everyone thinks that a person who took money for himself has been arrested. When it then turns out that he took it regularly by reporting it for an election campaign, it becomes difficult to understand how he is a corrupt person. Did he self-report with campaign money?" "I am a garantist, for me a person is only guilty when he is convicted in the third instance. I am as much so for people from the centre-right area who may be involved as for those from the centre-left area. I am convinced that Toti will do everything to prove his innocence, his extraneousness to the charges against him. I want to be optimistic and confident for him,' declared Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani. Friuli's leghist governor also bites the bullet: "I would tell everyone to use the utmost caution" on what has emerged so far from the enquiry involving the president of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, "because we are talking about an investigation and not a conviction," says Massimiliano Fedriga.