Finalter case: searches carried out in connection with false invoices
There has also been controversy within Milan City Council over the 20 per cent stake held by Mayor Sala through a trust, which was sold a few days ago
The case involving Finalter, a consultancy firm which, according to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, is alleged to have issued false invoices without having a genuine operational structure, is escalating. The firm’s Milan office was searched by the PEF unit of the Milan Guardia di Finanza.
Finalter is said to have received contracts via the Rome-based company Engineering, which is often used as a software and IT consultancy firm by companies within the Milan City Council’s group of subsidiaries.
It immediately became clear that this was highly inappropriate, given that one of its partners, Pietro Galli, also sat on the board of directors of ATM, and that he resigned because of this conflict of interest. Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who held a 20 per cent stake – albeit through a blind trust (known as ‘Inter’) – also sold his shares.
It is now emerging from the investigation, however, that the consultancy work was carried out not by the company – which was, in fact, not operational but merely a vehicle for investments – but by the shareholder Galli himself. He, however, is said not to have been listed as the actual consultant, thereby circumventing the tax authorities and also avoiding a potential conflict of interest, given that he sat simultaneously on the boards of the companies that allegedly commissioned the consultancy work, Engineering and Uteco Converting (of Verona).
Investigators suspect that invoices were issued for non-existent transactions. Searches were carried out at offices in Milan and at homes in Genoa, the residence of the Genoese accountant Giorgio Mezzadri and of Galli.
