Interrogations

Dossiers, first admissions, 'I was collecting data for Carmine Gallo'

Thursday, 31 October was the day of the interrogatories before Milan's gip Fabrizio Filice. On the one hand, Gallo and Calamucci with their spontaneous statements defended themselves, on the other hand, there were the first admissions

1 November 2024

Un’immagine della conferenza stampa in Procura sull'inchiesta della Dda di Milano su una società di investigazione e dossieraggio anche per grandi imprese, Milano 26 Ottobre 2024. ANSA

5' min read

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Versione italiana

Key points

Calamucci: "We will use Israelis for operation for Del Vecchio"
Csm: open file on court information system security
Stolen data, "Pazzali car with paddle with Republic coat of arms"
Collateral interrogations
Carmine Gallo: "I was in the services"
Piantedosi, data theft to attack political opponents

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

There are the first cracks in the network of alleged cyber-spies uncovered by the Milan DDA and DNA investigations and which last week led to four house arrests, including those of former super-cop Carmine Gallo and his 'right-hand man' Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, two suspensions from duty and a flurry of searches.

Calamucci: "We will use Israelis for operation for Del Vecchio"

An 'operation' by the Equalize group to be carried out, according to the interceptions, on behalf of Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the fourth son of Luxottica's patron and under investigation, and which Nunzio Calamucci, the so-called technological mastermind, would like to call 'Cast Lead', also appears in the Milanese investigation documents on the alleged 'dossier centre'. Calamucci, the investigators summarise in a report from the end of September, 'refers to the Israelis with whom he and De Marzio collaborated', the former carabiniere among the more than 60 suspects, and 'says he wants to call "the operation for Del Vecchio with the name "Cast Lead" in honour of the Israelis and of the fact that in the affair their help will certainly be useful'. Calamucci: 'Why Cast Lead? Because it's the same project, it's the last project the guys in Tel Aviv did'. The conversations date back to December 2023 and are found in a chapter of the proceedings in which it is indicated that Calamucci and Giulio Cornelli, who was also arrested on 25 October, 'are counting cash totalling 39,000 euro'. And Calamucci on that occasion 'reveals,' write the investigators, 'that that money comes from Del Vecchio and that De Marzio handed it over to him, who would have kept 11 thousand euro as a percentage'. And they would be for an 'operation they are planning'. According to Calamucci, "there is an internal 'war' going on within Luxottica's leadership and management that has the Del Vecchio family and Leonardo Maria in particular as its victims". The hacker goes on to explain that "the Del Vecchios are allegedly being investigated by another agency that has been commissioned by a foreign company" and speaks of "fake dossiers" that are supposedly being prepared.

Csm: file opened on court information system security

File opened at the Superior Council of the Magistracy on the security of computer systems used in judicial offices. The members of the Csm Marco Bisogni, Ernesto Carbone and Genantonio Chiarelli have announced that, as part of the activities of the seventh commission of which they are members, it has been decided to open a file on the recent cases of abusive access to computer and telematic systems used for the management of services and utilities of the Single Justice Network.

Stolen data, "Pazzali car with paddle with Republic coat of arms"

Enrico Pazzali, the then president of Fondazione Fiera who is now self-suspended because he is under investigation in the Milan DDA and DNA investigation into an alleged network of cyber-spies, was travelling in a car with a driver and also carrying a 'paddle with the coat of arms of the Republic and the wording Prefettura di Milano'. This is stated in a report in the investigation files. The investigators note that 'the institutionalisation of Equalize's activities also passes through the juxtaposition of its president' and owner, i.e. Pazzali, and State bodies and organisations. 'Pazzali is not only close to the institutions, an obvious proximity of convenience, but,' the act continues, 'he also approaches them'.

Collateral interrogations

While the National Cybersecurity Agency 'rejects all insinuations about alleged forms of compromise of its digital services', Thursday 31 October was the day of the interrogations of guarantee before the Milanese gip, Fabrizio Filice. On the one hand, Gallo and Calamucci with their spontaneous statements defended themselves ('In 41 years I have served the institutions and even now I will cooperate with the institutions,' said Gallo), on the other hand, there were the first admissions. Marco Malerba, the policeman who was the recipient of an interdiction order, was the only one of the six to answer questions. 'Yes, I was doing the abusive accesses for data, as part of an exchange of favours,' he said. Favours that, according to him, he was asked by Gallo, who was once in charge of the Rho-Pero police station in the Milan area: to his 'former boss' he would not have 'been able to say no'. In return, he would receive, among other things, recommendations for doctor's visits or even a table at a restaurant. And even the payment of legal fees.

Even Massimiliano Camponovo and Giulio Cornelli, two of the most experienced hackers in the team that revolved around Equalize, owned by Pazzali, although their words opened up important glimmers for the public prosecutor Francesco De Tommasi, who is coordinating the investigation with the deputy Alessandra Dolci and the public prosecutor Marcello Viola. The former spoke of 'a dark hand moving this system' to describe what he had perceived, which worried him so much that he feared for his life and that of his family members. That is why 'I used to make reports with the data they gave me'. Cornelli, however, with tears in his eyes, explained: 'I will clarify everything I can. I want to get out' of this bad situation and 'cut off environments that do not concern me'. As reported by his lawyer, Giovanni Tarquini, the computer technician added that he did not recognise himself 'in the figure attributed to him' by the investigations because 'he is not part of any criminal association context' but rather 'in a delicate affair with contours yet to be defined' on which he wants to shed light 'to get out and cut ties' with environments that, he claimed, do not concern him. Therefore, as soon as he and his defence counsel have read the deeds, he is expected to question the prosecutors.

Carmine Gallo: "I was in the services"

Gallo and Calamucci, both defended by the lawyer Antonella Augimeri, also want to interrogate and cooperate, but in a defensive manner. The super-cop, who in some interceptions says he 'worked in the services', who defines himself as a 'servant of the State', said he wanted to speak 'to the prosecutors to prove my innocence'. And the other protagonist of the investigations, as the 'technological mind of the group', made it clear that 'from an empirical point of view, the things I have read in the press are impossible to achieve', thus denying that he had ever 'punctured' the Sdi, since, contrary to what emerges from the interceptions, he and his men would not have been able to. Yet, for example, in June last year, Pazzali's order arrived to enter the Ministry of the Interior's database to check whether or not he was under investigation. And this was because a senior Gdf officer 'friend' of his reportedly told him that he had learned of an investigation against him over a transfer to one of his accounts of €200,000 from Banca Intesa. An affair on which, in those very days, the Public Prosecutor's Office was holding hearings on the managers of the Credit Institute.

Piantedosi, data theft to attack political opponents

On the new judicial case that has torn the veil on a 'gigantic traffic of confidential data' commissioned by clients, as defined by the Prosecutor of the Dna, Gianni Melillo, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, spoke at the question time in the Senate: "The investigations in Milan, but also those that in the recent past have highlighted illicit activities aimed at dossier-taking, raise the issue of the seriousness of the behaviour of those who might use illegally acquired data, not only for profit, but also to attack political opponents by altering the rules of democracy".