Fondazione Milano-Cortina, former CEO of Vetrya Luca Tomassini under investigation
In the complex investigation into the Milan-Cortina Foundation conducted by the Milan prosecutor’s office, and which currently involves three suspects, the name of Luca Tomassini, former legal representative of Vetrya, now Quibyt, which was awarded the contract for the development of the digital services of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics and Paralympics. Tomassini, together with the former CEO of the Foundation Vincenzo Novari and the former manager Massimiliano Zuzo, are accused of corruption and bid rigging. In particular, as reported by the Comcor website, the latter would have received from the former Vetrya “sums of money and other benefits” to “bypass” the procedures for choosing suppliers and technological sponsors, as well as for the hiring of employees of the Foundation.
According to the accusatory hypothesis, in fact, to “facilitate the awarding of tenders relating to the so-called digital ecosystem” to Vetrya, the former CEO of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Foundation Vincenzo Novari and the former manager Massimiliano Zuco would have received by Luca Tomassini, legal representative of the company that won the contracts“sums of money and other benefits”, such as “the Smart car for Zuco, paid directly by Tomassini via Vetrya since November 2019”. Those tenders, then, would have been assigned to the company with invoices issued for the works “by Vetrya and Quibyt”, both administered by Tomassini, and paid by the Foundation “for total amounts not less than” almost 1.9 million euros.
From the documents of the investigation by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office and Guardia di Finanza it appears that Vincenzo Novari would have “hired” “employee personnel” from the companies of his “previous managerial positions” and from others directly “referable” to him in the Milan-Cortina 2026 Foundation. . The PMs note a context of “opacity” in the management of contracts and personnel “during Novari’s mandate”. However, the Novari-Tomassini ties are rooted in the past. It was from NHC (Novari Holding and Consulting) that the company, later winner of the digital contracts for the Winter Olympics, Tommassini’s Vetrya (later Quybit), purchased company shares again in 2018.
“After the delays and silences, investigations have now also arrived. The events relating to the organization of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are becoming more and more worrying with each passing day. Which is why we will ask for the establishment of a regional commission dedicated to the topic, within which the progress of the work and compliance with the principles of transparency, legality and sustainability which must continue to guide the preparation of the event can be monitored. Exactly the same request that we made, successfully, asking for the establishment of an ad hoc commission on the PNRR funds dedicated to Lombardy. We didn’t want the Lombards to risk losing that opportunity, just as we don’t want Lombardy to miss the opportunity that the Olympics represent” was the proposal from Nicola Di Marco (M5s Lombardy group leader). “Up until now we have seen a wrapped up national government around a bobsled track, while President Fontana continues to hide behind increasingly less convincing and embarrassing reassurances, for him, passing the buck with previous governments. Answers that less than two years after the event, and in relation to the latest news, are no longer enough.”
Milan-Cortina Foundation, storm over Minister Salvini for “inflated costs”
And it is not only the judicial investigation that throws the Foundation into chaos, but also a clash between the Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini and the investigative journalism program Report on infrastructure hey costs of the Olympic Games. A clash that all starts from the accusations of lack of economic and environmental sustainability of the Olympic works covered in the May 19 episode, in particular with respect to the gap between the candidacy project presented to the International Olympic Committee in 2019 and the practical application. Almost five years after the Olympic project based on cost-effectiveness and sustainability – is the accusation of Report – “things have changed a bit. The latest plan for the Olympic works, which dates back to September 2023, provides for 3.6 billion of costs, financed mostly by the State, and there are not only sports facilities, but also infrastructure works, especially roads”.
Report’s investigation, Quotidiano Nazionale reports, starting from the latest executive project of the Cortina bobsleigh track. The project involved the cutting of 19,980 square meters of forest, but required the maintenance of trees in two areas” in which, however, the journalists show, “the trees have been cut down”. “In addition to the damage, there is also the risk of insult “, comments Sigfrido Ranucci, host of Report, “because if we were not able to build the track in time we would be forced to go abroad, which is plan B of the International Olympic Committee”.
But the costs, Report explains, were not respected. A renovation of the existing runway was hypothesized at a cost of 49 million euros. Today this will be demolished and a new one will be built with an estimated cost of 118 million, all paid by the state, then reduced to 81 million with a “light” version of the project in which – says Report – the environmental mitigation works were removed in runway design, including camouflage covers
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