Toti also under house arrest for illegal financing from Esselunga: new developments in the investigation

New precautionary measure under house arrest for the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti . The governor is now accused of illegal financing for the affair of the election ads paid, according to the prosecution, under the table by Esselunga and projected on the big screen in Terrazza Colombo. Also under investigation for the same offence are Toti's former right-hand man Matteo Cozzani, former senator and Primocanale owner Maurizio Rossi and former Esselunga board member Francesco Moncada.

According to the indictment, Francesco Moncada allegedly financed 5,560 advertising passages (Toti per Genova and Candidato sindaco Marco Bucci) on the panel displayed on the Terrazza Colombo. According to the investigators, Esselunga would have paid out about EUR 55,600. The passes, in view of the 2022 municipal elections, would have been 'materially disbursed by Ptv spa but offered by the supermarket giant in a concealed manner, i.e. without any resolution by the competent corporate body, without a regular budget entry and without making any joint declaration'. In particular, 'Moncada, in agreement with Rossi, Cozzani and Toti, promised to conclude and then concluded an advertising contract with Maurizio Rossi, which formally was supposed to advertise only Esselunga but which, in reality, would also cover the costs of advertising passages for the election campaign of the Liguria al centro Toti per Bucci list'. In order to be able to justify the advertising passages, Rossi stipulated four contracts with the Giovanni Toti Committee 'which provided for the projection of a total of 500 passages of a clip at a total price of EUR 5,000, but in reality, compared to the 500 passages planned and contracted, 6,060 passages were made'.

With the new precautionary measure, the interviews requested by governor Giovanni Toti and authorised in recent days by gip Paola Faggioni could be suspended. The first, with councillor Giacomo Giampedrone, was already held on 17 July in the villa in Ameglia, but on 19 July the meeting with League leader Matteo Salvini is scheduled. The latter will be skipped for sure because on 19 July there will be an interrogation of Toti himself.

"It is evident that there is a permanent and topical danger that the suspect may reiterate similar conducts - moreover considered fully legitimate and correct by the above-mentioned - This is one of the passages of the ordinance in which the Genoa Magistrate's Court Paola Faggioni justifies the precautionary measures (house arrest) against the Ligurian governor, who has already been under house arrest since 7 May for corruption and the recipient of a new measure for illegal financing. This is a development of the first phase of the investigation that marked an earthquake in Ligurian politics and that today risks having new controversial aftermaths.

According to the judge, the same one who signed the first order, the latest investigative developments 'also make the precautionary requirements topical again, given the danger of evidential pollution due to the danger that the suspect, if not subject to any precautionary constraint, will get in touch with other suspects in order to develop a common strategy or that, exploiting the influence deriving from the functions performed, he will contact other people able to provide useful circumstances for a convenient reconstruction of the new criminal conduct that has emerged'. The gip considers that, 'taking into account the seriousness of the conduct, and the consequent instrumentalisation of his public function for the pursuit of personal interests', the measure of house arrest 'is proportionate to the seriousness of the facts'.