The Court of Milan: Ki Group Holding, another former Santanchè company, goes bankrupt

The bankruptcy court of Milan has opened the judicial liquidation procedure, the one that traces the old bankruptcy, for another of the companies of the bio-food group once led by the minister Daniela Santanchè and by former partner Giovanni Canio Mazzaro. It is Ki Group Holding spa, whose bankruptcy had been requested by the prosecutors Marina Gravina and Luigi Luzi, the same holders of the proceedings on the former companies of the FdI senator, such as Visibilia. The minister is already under investigation for bankruptcy for the bankruptcy of Ki Group srl, and a similar charge could come after the Bioera bankruptcy and after the holding company's latest one.

Already after the hearing on 29 May, it had become clear that bankruptcy would be reached, as had already happened in January 2024 for Ki Group srl and last December for Bioera spa. A series of bankruptcies that could lead to new legal troubles for the senator, who is already on trial for false accounting and who risks another indictment for aggravated fraud against the Inps in two separate strands of the Visibilia case. The holding company's lawyers had deferred to the judges' decision after a hearing had been scheduled to discuss 'the inadmissibility of the application for access' to the 'concordato in bianco' and the petition to open bankruptcy proceedings.

Almost six months ago, the spa had requested a blank concordat and new protective measures, assuring that a 'rescue plan' would be submitted within 60 days. This did not happen. Neither the 'proposal, nor the arrangement plan, nor the appeal for approval of the restructuring agreement' or any other 'crisis regulation instrument' has been submitted. Among Ki Group Holding's major creditors are the bankruptcy of Bionature, a company also in the food sector that was once part of Bioera, and the bankruptcy of Penta Trasporti. For Santanchè, among other things, a previous charge of bankruptcy had been archived, at the request of the prosecutors, in the first part of the investigation into the Visibilia publishing group, because the Editore spa had been saved from bankruptcy and then ended up in receivership, decided by the Civil Court.

Substantial "tax and social security debts of about EUR 1.4 million" as of "October 2020", a "negative net worth" as of 28 February last of over EUR 6.5 million, the "failure to find an alternative solution to the crisis and insolvency, given the failure to file the debt restructuring agreement" and a "state of definitive inability of the company to regularly meet its obligations". This was written by the judges of the Second Civil and Business Crisis Section, Laura De Simone, president, Luisa Vasile and Francesco Pipicelli, in the ruling, filed and notified to the parties today, with which they declared 'the opening of judicial liquidation' for Ki Group Holding, another of the companies of the bio-food group once led by the minister Daniela Santanchè and her former partner Giovanni Canio Mazzaro. The company went bankrupt at the request of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office headed by Marcello Viola and the pool of prosecutors led by deputy Roberto Pellicano. But also of the Agenzia delle Entrate, which highlighted debts of over 400,000 euro owed by the holding company, with 'negative outcome of the attempted seizures of receivables from third parties'. Marco Garegnani was appointed by the judges as receiver, who will have to draw up a report that will also be filed with the Prosecutor's Office.

Also today, the monocratic court of Rome, in the context of a pre-trial hearing, ordered the trial of the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, for the charge of defamation against Giuseppe Zeno, a minority shareholder of the company Visibilia Editore Spa. The trial has been set for 16 September next: the judge did not accept the request made by the defence, which called for the case not to proceed or for the acts to be forwarded to the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, where another proceeding is underway involving the same two parties. The case is related to some statements made by the parliamentarian during a report to the Senate on 5 July 2023 in relation to the investigation into the company involving Santanchè. The indictment contains statements that, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome, fall within the offence of defamation. Referring to Zeno, the minister states that he is "...a sort of financier who left Torre del Greco many years ago, moved first to London, then to Switzerland and later to Monte Carlo and now resides in the Bahamas...". And again: Santanchè added that Zeno 'makes reference to implausible and obscure manoeuvres of mine only after - I would like to make this clear - having futilely tried to force me into agreements that are unacceptable to me. This, however, is a separate issue on which, unfortunately, I cannot add anything more, because it will be the subject of a special judicial enquiry that will clarify, also thanks to voice recordings, the purposes that inspired those who set all this in motion, and when a minority shareholder, resident in the Bahamas, made proposals that were inadmissible to us, we contextually warned him through a law firm." On the judge's decision, the plaintiff, who was present in the courtroom, expressed "satisfaction". "The court has recognised today," said Zeno, assisted by lawyer Antonio Piantadosi, "that the words expressed by Santanchè had a damaging content against me.