Urban planning investigation: re-examination opinion on Milan's brick king Catella awaited

Manfredi Catella arrived early this morning at the Milan Re-examination Court to discuss his appeal, defended by lawyers Francesco Mucciarelli and Adriano Raffaelli. The former managing director of Coima is accused of not only having had a privileged relationship with the City Council's Landscape Commission - considered by prosecutors to be the 'fulcrum' of corruption, as it has improper authorisation powers - but also of having conditioned the politics and business of Milanese urban planning, of which he has been a major player in the last decade. In fact, he is responsible for the construction of Porta Nuova and Piazza Gae Aulenti, but also for projects in the pipeline, such as the regeneration of the former Farini airport and the construction of the Olympic Village for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

For the prosecution, he would have tried to condition the authorisations for his projects, weaving very close and 'pressing' relations with politicians. It is no coincidence that the investigators have filed a series of chats for an appeal with the Riesame, including one in which former councillor Tancredi tells Catella whether he would have reconfirmed him as councillor (obviously there could be a joking tone that does not emerge from the transcript). Mayor Giuseppe Sala, his dg Christian Malangone and Catella had a common chat, considered at least inappropriate by the prosecution.

"The precautionary requirements remain beyond the resignation" of Manfredi Catella "from his positions within Coima". This is what the Milan prosecutors wrote in the new brief filed with the Court of Re-examination on the occasion of the hearing. For the prosecutors Marina Petruzzella and Paolo Filippini, coordinated by the deputy Tiziana Siciliano, the request for precautionary measure and the supplementary statement of 14 July 'already reconstructed the masterly way, bordering on the improbable, and outside the law, that Catella has of interacting with the public administration, using councillor Tancredi, general manager Malangone and mayor Sala, whom he treats as his clumsy and inefficient employees, as intermediaries, to condition to his advantage the opinions of the Landscape Commission, the contents of the calls for tenders in which the municipality has to auction the properties of its heritage'.

The most controversial aspect of the charges against Catella is the 'Pirellino' deal, a project to be carried out with Stefano Boeri (who is also under investigation in the enquiry), after the acquisition of the municipally-owned building in 2019. For the public prosecutor's office, this would constitute blatant evidence of bribery, given that a bribe of €28,548 would have been paid to Scandurra by Coima (this was the only figure shared by the gip in the pre-trial detention order, not the other more onerous fees for this single affair that the prosecutor's office was contesting). However, the fact was downgraded by the gip, who did not find that Tancredi had been induced to give or promise benefits in his relations with Catella.

The fact. On 31 July 2023, Coima issued an invoice for a consultancy service to Scandurra for the Via Messina 53 student residence project, which according to the prosecutors, however, was aimed at favouring authorisation for the Pirellino (the proof for the prosecution would be the fact that the consultancy service was paid late and for non-existent projects). The prosecution emphasises that Scandurra did not abstain during the vote to grant the authorisation, which would instead have been necessary to avoid conflicts of interest.

This same case, however, is also an argument used by the defence, which emphasises that this consultancy was for another project, not for the Pirellino, a project that is still at a standstill.

The authorisation process for the urban redevelopment project, which included the 25-storey skyscraper and Boeri's Botanical Tower, was rather stormy. On 23 March there was an initial negative opinion, and Catella in intercepted conversations declared his opposition to councillor Tancredi, describing the requested corrections as "unsustainable". On 18 May, the commission gave another no, and again Catella asked for explanations, with the councillor defending the decision by claiming that there would only be changes in the rendering, not substantial ones. However, Tancredi says he wants to intervene "well beyond his role", also to prevent Boeri from leaving the project. So on 22 June the opinion became positive.