Genoa – For the Financial Information Office (UIF) of the Bank of Italy, numerous disbursements received by the Giovanni Toti electoral committee up to the two-year period 2023/2024 are “suspicious” first and foremost. But above all: the Guardia di Finanza, with a detailed report filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 16 July, explains that after that alert, investigations were triggered both on the repeated outgoing movements from the Committee and on the formally “personal” deposits of the governorboth from the latter to further accounts.
The whirlwind of payments
The new annotations of the military of the economic and financial police unit have been attached to the documents filed with the parties in view of the immediate trial that will begin next November 5. In this proceeding Toti is accused with the terminal operator Aldo Spinelli and with the former head of the port Paolo Emilio Signorini, and all three are charged with various degrees of corruption, while only the politician is also accused of illicit financing of political parties.
The information forwarded by the financiers to the PM Federico Manotti and Luca Monteverdein charge of the various investigations against the former governor, arises as stated from a report that arrived on July 7 from the investigative offices of the central bank. The technicians described in a so-called “SOS”, a report of suspicious transactions, the transfers that arrived on the account of Toti’s party, who resigned as president of the Liguria Region on July 26 after being placed under house arrest on May 7, obtaining his release on August 1.
The list of the latest backers
The UIF has drawn up a list of financiers linked to the apparently “anomalous” movements, carried out in their opinion up to a few weeks before the raid. The entrepreneurs Aldo Spinelli, Alberto Luigi Amico (the latter in turn investigated for corruption) are mentioned, Mario Costantino, owner of the oil company Europam and for years among the main economic supporters of the former regional president, Alberto Pozzo, lawyer of the orange electoral committee. The investigators therefore underline in their document: «Two transfers of a considerably higher amount than the others stand out, arranged by Europam spa». Which has paid 190 thousand euros in the last two years and added «liberal donation» as the reason.
From party accounts to technically “personal” ones
And yet the most significant chapter in the eyes of those investigating is the one on the movements that occurred after the Toti Committee, even recently, took over the generous subsidies from private individuals, and this is how it is summarized by the Fiamme Gialle. «The Bank of Italy – writes the Finance Police – declares the outgoing transactions from the Toti Committee account suspicious, where several transfers were made in favor of two personal relationships held by Giovanni Toti at two other banks». Again: «With reference to the outflows from the current account attributable to Giovanni Toti – the investigators specify – the UIF detects several transfers made in favor of a relationship held by the same Toti at two other institutions, one for the year 2022 and one for the two-year period 2023/2024. All the transactions have as the reason “contribution for political activity”». Last passage of the note drawn up for the prosecutors: «These outflows are being evaluated».
According to what has been reconstructed so far by investigators, five payments to Toti’s party have ended up under the scrutiny of inspectors in recent months. First of all, two payments from Europam: one hundred thousand euros that arrived in the Toti Committee’s account on April 11, 2023 and 90 thousand euros on April 12, 2024. Then there is a payment from Spinelli srl (2,700 euros on March 10, 2023 and 4,500 on April 9, 2024), one from Amico & C. (8 thousand euros on September 28, 2023) and another from Amico Servizi (8 thousand euros on the same day).
The defender’s reply
The 19th century contacted for a response on the matter Stefano Savi, the lawyer who has been defending Toti since May 7th. And the lawyer, as he has done in the past, responds by maintaining that there is no illicit activity and stressing that everything occurred according to the current regulations. «Only traceable money passed through the various accounts – he explains – (he means not only the main one of the Toti Committee, but also the technically «personal» ones to which sums from the first one and previously credited there by entrepreneurs were transferred, ed.). The Guardia di Finanza itself acknowledged that these were deposits intended for political activity, not used for personal expenses (the lawyer refers to a previous document in which, however, the Fiamme Gialle limited their considerations to the two-year period 2020-2022, while doubts remain on the part of the magistrates regarding the use of the money diverted previously, and subsequently, ed.). During the various interrogations, my client was never challenged or asked anything about it». The lawyer finds it incomprehensible that the new dossier from the Bank of Italy is so recent: «We do not know why these facts are being brought up to date again. Let us repeat: the reports of suspicious transactions they concern traceable expenses and liberal donations made in accordance with the law».
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