Review Court

Equalize case, 'serious circumstantial picture, but no house arrest for Pazzali'

The judges recognised the 'serious circumstantial picture' put forward by the prosecutors for all suspects. Precautionary measures, however, not necessary

31 July 2025

Enrico Pazzali (ANSA/DANIEL DAL ZENNARO)

4' min read

The Court of Re-examination in Milan rejected the appeal by the prosecutors, against the judge's no, who had insisted on house arrest for Enrico Pazzali, former owner of the Equalize investigation agency and former president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, investigated in the enquiry into alleged cyber-spies and illegal dossiers with abusive access to databases. The investigation closed yesterday against him and 14 other people. The decision after more than four months. The hearing had been on 19 March.

The Court, deciding on the Prosecutor's appeals, ordered house arrest only for the Roman real estate developer Lorenzo Sbraccia, already under house arrest in another strand of the investigation. The other requests, including that for Enrico Pazzali, were rejected. The judges, however, recognised the 'serious circumstantial picture' put forward by the prosecutors for all the suspects, including Pazzali himself. Precautionary measures, however, were not necessary.

The note of the review court

The re-examination, reads a note signed by the president of the Court of Milan, Fabio Roia, 'filed on 30 July 2025 all the 12 ordinances relating to the appeals presented by the Public Prosecutor in the judicial affair connected to the Equalize company'. Previously, 'four other ordinances had been filed with declarations of inadmissibility'. The judges, we read further, 'recognised the existence of a serious circumstantial framework in relation to the indictment for all the suspects'. Only in relation to Sbraccia's position, 'in detention for another reason', were 'also identified precautionary needs with the consequent adoption of the measure of house arrest, which is obviously suspended, having to wait for the eventual judgment of legitimacy'. In other words, Sbraccia may appeal to the Court of Cassation and in the meantime the judges' decision remains suspended.

The first strand of the maxi-investigation closed yesterday

"All orders have already been communicated to the parties in the morning," one reads further. Just yesterday, meanwhile, the first strand of the maxi-investigation, conducted by the Ros of the Carabinieri and coordinated by prosecutor Francesco De Tommasi of the Public Prosecutor's Office headed by Marcello Viola and by Dna colleagues Antonello Ardituro and Barbara Sargenti, was closed, following the four arrests and two interdiction measures of 25 October.

Arrested were, among others, Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, the group's IT expert, and former supercop Carmine Gallo, who died of a heart attack last March.

For the prosecutors, Pazzali would have been at the 'top' of the criminal association for the alleged espionage, with abusive access to databases to the detriment of hundreds of people, including VIPs and well-known personalities, and illegal dossiers. Circumstantial gravity also recognised by the judges of the re-examination, without the need for precautionary measures. For five years, between 2019 and 2024, the group of alleged Equalize cyber-spies would have acted 'for the purpose of profit', selling 'illegally acquired information, or for extortion and blackmail purposes, to condition and influence' sectors 'of politics and business'.

Judges: Pazzali also asked for reports on behalf of politics

Enrico Pazzali 'was a diligent requester' of 'reputational reports (not the lawful ones advertised on Equalize's website, but those drafted and prepared with information taken from confidential databases) most often (when not requested in the name and on behalf of influential political figures or members of the institutions) to 'manage' professional antagonisms or to acquire knowledge about persons involved in public affairs that could be useful to him or his sponsors'.

This was written by the Court of the Re-examination of Milan, which, while not recognising the precautionary needs of the house arrest of the former owner of the investigative agency and former public manager, points out, on the basis of the picture reconstructed by the Milanese DDA and DNA, that "it does not seem doubtful the participation of Pazzali" in the association "to commit a crime: the successful public manager, who held important positions, aspired to keep them and to sponsor his professionalism in more prestigious directions, immediately grasped the group's potential and exploited it to his own advantage'.

Pazzali's lawyer: 'Ready for appropriate defensive initiatives'

"We take note of the notice of conclusion of investigation notified by the Public Prosecutor's Office. We will take note of the trial dossier as soon as possible in order to be able to carry out any appropriate defensive initiative to protect Dr. Pazzali'. This was explained yesterday by Federico Cecconi, lawyer of Enrico Pazzali, for whom the Dda of Milan and the DNA have closed the investigation, also against 14 other people, for the Equalize case.

Pazzali's defence - even before the re-examination hearing in March on the prosecutor's appeal to insist on house arrest - has always maintained that he was kept 'in the dark' about illegal activities, in particular the acquisition of secret information from databases, by the operational group revolving around the Equalize investigation agency, which he founded. On the contrary, he was a 'victim' of the 'camouflage activities of the reports', which mixed illegal data and data from open sources, carried out by former super-cop Carmine Gallo, who died on 9 March, and by computer technician Nunzio Samuele Calamucci. While the company's business, as far as he knew, was based on perfectly legal 'reputational' reports.