The charge is money laundering

Conviction for Fini and Tulliani: the Monte Carlo flat case

Gianfranco Fini was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months and Elisabetta Tulliani to 5 years in the trial on the purchase of a flat in Monte Carlo. The charge is money laundering

by Redaction Rome

30 April 2024Articolo aggiornato il 30 aprile 2024, ore 11:00

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Key points

Fini: "Do not authorise sale of Monte Carlo flat"
The hearing on 18 March
Elisabetta Tulliani's statements in court against her brother
The Tulliani family's real estate operations
The relationship between Fini and slot king Francesco Corallo
The press campaign against the then president of the House
The Fini-Berlusconi break-up with the "what are you doing kicking me out"?

5' min read

The former president of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini , was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in the trial related to the purchase of a flat in Monte Carlo. This was decided by the judges of the Court of Rome. The charge is money laundering. The judges in Rome also sentenced Elisabetta Tulliani to 5 years, her brother Giancarlo to 6 years and their father Sergio to 5 years.

Fini: I authorised the sale of the house but not to Tulliani

"I am not disappointed: I was not held responsible for money laundering, evidently the only thing that prevented my acquittal was the authorisation for the sale of the flat, which was clearly not authorised by me. I am leaving more serene than one might think after seven years of trials. I remind myself that for a similar affair a complaint against me was filed by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office'. Fini said this after the Rome court ruling. 'It is right to have faith in justice, certainly if it were a little more prompt. After so much talk, after so much controversy, so many accusations, so much denigration from a political point of view, I am responsible for what? For authorising the sale. It is not clear to me what the offence consists of'. He then went on to speculate: 'I did not authorise the sale of the Montecarlo house to a company linked to Giancarlo Tulliani. When I gave the OK I did not know who the buyer was'.

Fini defence: we will appeal, he is innocent

"We will appeal. We expected an acquittal, we are convinced of our client's innocence. We are certain that in the Appeal this last residue will also be abundantly clarified. The affair concerning the authorisation for the sale of the Montecarlo house substantially, in our opinion, overlaps with the same affair that is now the subject of a dismissal order'. This was stated by Gianfranco Fini's lawyers, Michele Sarno and Francesco Caroleo Grimaldi, after the sentence of two years and eight months. On whether the prosecution is time-barred, the lawyers added that this is something that will have to be assessed. "We have to verify what legal qualification was given. We will read the motivations. We are strongly confident that in the appeal even this last small segment will fall and the outcome will be liberating in all respects,' they added.

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The hearing on 18 March

At the hearing on 18 March, the Capitoline prosecutors had asked for eight years' imprisonment for the former President of the Chamber of Deputies, who is accused together with his companion of the opaque sale transaction, dating back to 2008, of a flat in Monte Carlo, bequeathed by Countess Annamaria Colleoni to Alleanza Nazionale, which was allegedly purchased, according to the prosecution, by Giancarlo Tulliani through off-shore companies.

An operation carried out in 2008, for a little more than EUR 300,000 and which, with the sale of the property in 2015, yielded $1.360 million. On that occasion, the prosecutors had also urged a 9-year sentence for Elisabetta Tulliani , and 10 years for her brother Giancarlo Tulliani.

Only the offence of money laundering is being contested in the trial, after the judges of the fourth collegial section had declared that the charge of criminal conspiracy, which was contested against other defendants but not against Fini, was time-barred in the hearing of 29 February.

Elisabetta Tulliani's statements in court against her brother

In the courtroom, on 18 March, shortly before the Prosecutor's Office intervened, Elisabetta Tulliani had asked to release a short statement. Words with which she had essentially 'dumped' her brother. 'I hid my brother's desire to buy the house in Monte Carlo from Gianfranco Fini. I never told Fini the origin of that money, which I was convinced belonged to my brother,' the woman had visibly moved. My brother's unscrupulous behaviour represents one of the greatest disappointments of my life. I hope that with this statement I have given an element to get to the truth'.

The Tulliani family's real estate operations

The State Attorney's Office, for its part, had demanded an acquittal for Fini. Initially, the proceedings also involved other persons, including the 'Slot King' Francesco Corallo and MP Amedeo Laboccetta. For them, the judges' decision of 29 February triggered the statute of limitations on the charges. According to the initial indictment by the prosecutors of the Dda capitolin, the members of the criminal association were laundering hundreds of millions of euro by evading taxes. That river of money, once cleaned, was used by Corallo for economic and financial activities but also, it is the belief of the investigators, in real estate operations involving members of the Tulliani family. The investigations by the Public Prosecutor's Office therefore also concerned the flat in Boulevard Principesse Charlotte, which then ended up in the possession of Giancarlo Tulliani, who currently lives in Dubai.

The relationship between Fini and slot king Francesco Corallo

The Monegasque flat was allegedly purchased by Tulliani junior with Corallo's money through two ad hoc companies (Printemps and Timara). Fini's involvement in the investigation is linked to his relationship with Corallo. A relationship, according to the prosecution, that would be at the basis of the Tulliani's wealth. The latter, according to the investigators' findings, would have received on their current accounts large sums of money traceable to Corallo and destined to the entrepreneur's economic-financial operations in Italy, Holland, the Netherlands Antilles and the Principality of Monaco. "This affair," Fini said in the March 2023 hearing, "was the most painful for me: I was deceived by Giancarlo Tulliani and his sister Elisabetta. Only years later did I discover that the owner of the house was Tulliani and I broke off relations with him. Elisabetta's behaviour also hurt me: I only found out from the court documents that she was co-owner of the flat and then I also learnt that her brother paid her back part of the proceeds of the sale. All facts that I did not know before'.

The press campaign against the then president of the Chamber

The investigation linked to the Monte Carlo flat had started after a bitter campaign by the press close to Berlusconi (the newspapers Il Giornale, Libero and the weekly Panorama) in August 2010, in the aftermath of the break between Fini and the Cavaliere. The rift had taken place at the Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome, on 22 April 2010: it was the time of the Popolo della libertà (Pdl), a centre-right formation basically born from the merger between Forza Italia and Alleanza nazionale. Berlusconi was leading his fourth government, the second longest in the Republic, supported by a large majority, including the League. Fini was the president of the Chamber of Deputies, but his (strong) personality did not sit well with the equally strong personality of the Cavaliere, with one intending to prevail over the other in the running of the party.

The Fini-Berlusconi break-up with the 'what are you doing kicking me out'?

During the PDL assembly, Fini had particularly criticised Berlusconi for his political stance against the judiciary. The then premier had retorted in front of everyone: 'You want to do politics? Resign as president of the Chamber and we welcome you with open arms in the party'. Fini, in the front row of the audience, had replied, furious: "What are you doing, kicking me out?", pointing his finger at him. It was the beginning of a slow end for the PDL and the government. Fini took 33 deputies and 10 senators with him, founding Futuro e Libertà, a formation that would be rather short-lived, however, in the absence of consensus.