Genoa – “Speaking of funding, I have to come and see you,” he says without too many frills the former governor of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti talking to Aldo Spinelli on the phone. And the terminal operator replies: “Be good…. apply a bit of pressure… when is the port master plan?”. Toti reassures him: “Yes yes I’ll talk about it with Signorini who we are going to Dubai together… if anything, take a plane and come too”. And the tender to build the future breakwater? “It’s underway – laughs the former president of Liguria on the phone with Spinelli – but we already know who will do it…”. Then a further request for help from the politician – “because the elections are over soon” – and the reassurance from the entrepreneur: “Don’t worry, we’ll see each other on Thursday: you and me first, then also with Bucci…”.
Toti to Spinelli: “Speaking of funding, I have to come see you”
These are some of the salient passages of the audio recently filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office as part of the corruption investigation that on May 7th had resulted in the arrest of Toti, Spinelli and the former president of the Port Authority of Genoa and Savona Paolo Emilio Signorini in prison. The material has been made available to the defense in view of the immediate trial that will start for all three defendants starting next November 5th.
The files provide a much more eloquent cross-section than the transcripts, focusing on the relationships and suspected collusions in force in particular between 2021 and 2022 between Toti, Signorini and Spinelli, the impresario from whom the first two continually asked for money, in different ways.
Not only that. From investigative sources we learn that in particular the recordings on the Dam will enter into the European investigation into the awarding of the mega-contract worth over one billion euros assigned to the WeBuild consortium, today ForGenoa Breakwater.
Toti to Spinelli: “The dam? There’s a competition, and we also know who wins”
The investigations are conducted by the Eppo (European Public Prosecutor’s Office) as this is what the law requires when public money related to the Pnrr (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) allocated at community level is involved. It should be noted that a few weeks ago the Council of State had defined the administrative procedure for the assignment of the contract as regular, thus rejecting the appeal of the defeated competitorthe Eteria business association. And yet it is clear that on a criminal level, the meticulous listening to Toti’s wiretaps, which undoubtedly shows that he knows in advance who will win the tender while specifying that it is “still in progress”, sheds new light on the affair and on possible favoritism in a billion-dollar game, beyond the fact that the work is necessary and the construction has already begun.
In March it was the Anac, the Anti-Corruption Authority, to contest the award to Webuild, concluding its two-year investigation with a 50-page resolution. The document challenged the top management of the Port Authority and the Commissioner for the dam — both roles were held by Signorini before he moved to Iren as CEO, a position he held on the day of his arrest — the procedures followed to award the contract. “Anomalies and distortion of competition,” wrote Anac about the work assigned to the Breakwater consortium led by Webuild, also stigmatizing the possibility for Webuild itself to automatically obtain variations, with further public disbursements, in relation to the “easily foreseeable” geological problems connected to the foundation operations on muddy seabeds.
The conversation about the Dam dates back to September 28, 2021. And in the continuation, as we have said, there is another passage in the opinion of those investigating very significant of the Toti-Spinelli liaison. The former solicits the financing of the latter by reassuring him that “the extension” (i.e. the extension of the concession to manage the Terminal Rinfuse) could be decided shortly and Spinelli in turn comforts the politician on their agreements, postponing the details to a private meeting for the following Thursday, which will be followed by an extended one with Bucci. Precisely the fact that Toti and Spinelli take care to exclude the mayor from the discussions in which financing in exchange for favors must be discussed, has convinced the investigators not to attribute crimes to Bucci.
The other dialogues we are reporting on today date back to September 1, 2021. and March 8, 2022. In the first, Toti explains to Signorini that he is “thrown in the boat” with Spinelli and asks him to speed up the procedures of interest to the second.
Toti calls Signorini from Spinelli’s yacht: “When will we bring the extension to the Committee?”
In the background we hear of Spinelli complaining and Signorini reassuring him through a third party (i.e. Toti). The former president of the port, we recall, is accused of having favored the terminal operator in exchange for payment for weekends in Monte Carlo and a bribe in cash to pay for the catering of his daughter’s wedding.
In the dialogue of March 8th instead Toti explicitly asks Spinelli for money and these connect the possible donation to the former governor’s commitment to the future port master plan.
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