Investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office into the Agnelli family trusts. Three suspects, including John Elkann

A new page opens, this time of a fiscal nature, in the complicated battle over the legacy of lawyer Gianni Agnelli brought by Margherita Agnelli against her children John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann.

According to Ansa, a focus on the trust companies of the group controlled by the Agnelli family has been activated by the Turin public prosecutor's office, with the Guardia di Finanza acquiring documentation in the office of a notary. According to what has been learnt, the file was opened after a complaint presented by Margherita Agnelli, daughter of Gianni Agnelli.

Three people have been entered in the register of suspects. According to Ansa from informed sources, they are Gianluca Ferrero, an accountant from Turin, Robert Von Groueningen, administrator of Marella Agnelli's inheritance on behalf of the Swiss judicial authority, and John Elkann, son of Margherita Agnelli, who lodged the complaint that triggered the investigation by the subalpine magistrates.

However, the companies of the group controlled by the Turin dynasty would not be involved. The objective of the investigations is to verify the hypothesis of tax irregularities in particular with reference, we learn, to the tax residence of Margherita's mother, Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto. The proceedings initiated by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office on the trustees of the group controlled by the Agnelli family would not be against unknown persons. The magistrates have made entries in the register of suspects.

This is a new strand in the judicial battle that Margherita Agnelli has been waging for years now. Just a month ago, the criminal action brought against her children over an issue indirectly related to their father Gianni Agnelli's inheritance returned to the court in Turin. The Court of Cassation has, in fact, partially annulled the order with which the judges of the capital of Piedmont, last June, had ordered a halt to the lawsuit pending the definition of three ongoing legal proceedings in Switzerland. At the same time, investigations by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office are going on, centred on the thirteen works of art that furnished Villa Frescot and Villar Perosa in Turin and a family residence in Rome, which disappeared years ago and are now claimed by the daughter Margherita, the only heir after the death of her mother Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto.