Corruption, Gabriele Visco arrested: President Mattarella's nephew was also heard as a person informed on the facts
The investigation by the Rome prosecutor's office which sees Gabriele Visco, former manager of Invitalia and son of former deputy minister Vincenzo Visco, under investigation, accused of influence peddling and corruption, It's been going on for months. Several interviews have already been completed. And among those who were heard as people informed about the facts there are also important names. Among these also Bernardo Mattarella.
The manager, nephew of the President of the Republic, is completely unrelated to the investigation. In recent weeks he has been heard for his role as CEO of Invitalia: he therefore explained the internal mechanisms of the agency controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance to the Capitoline magistrates.
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Corruption, Gabriele Visco arrested in Rome: the son of the former minister under house arrest
There is also Gabriele Visco, son of the former Finance Minister, among the four people arrested by the financiers of the Special Currency Police Unit of Rome. On behalf of the Capital Prosecutor's Office, the Fiamme Gialle men carried out a house arrest order against three people in addition to Visco: the lawyer Luca Leone of Rome and the entrepreneurs Pierluigi Fioretti, former municipal councilor of the National Alliance in Campidoglio, and the builder Claudio Favellato of Isernia, active in the field of construction of water networks, roads and hydraulic systems. Also ordered a preventive seizure, also “for equivalent”, for an amount of 230 thousand euros. The various charges contested are corruption and influence peddling.
The 4 million contract – The prosecutor's office led by Francesco Lo Voi issued a statement in which the names of the suspects do not appear, as required by the decree on the presumption of innocence passed by the former Minister of Justice Marta Cartabia. “The investigation made it possible to hypothesize – explains a note from the prosecutor's office – a widespread and consolidated system of illicit relationships in which a former public manager, with the mediation of a Roman entrepreneur, would have favored, in exchange for money and other utility, the awarding of a tender of over four million euros to a company attributable to a manufacturer and attempted to facilitate the hiring of a person close to the latter at a public subsidiary”. For this matter, the prosecutor accuses Visco of the crime of trafficking in influence and investigates the two entrepreneurs: Favellato as the alleged final beneficiaryWhile Foils as intermediary. Raised in the Youth Front and then moved to the AN, Fioretti was a municipal councilor in La Destra – the meteoric party founded by the former minister Francesco Storace – and was a delegate of Gianni Alemanno's council for economic and popular housing plans.
The corruption hypothesis, instead, it is linked to another matter that emerges from the investigation: the son of the former minister, in fact, is accused of having entrusted a consultancy assignment, for an amount of 230 thousand euros, at the institution in which he was employed to the lawyer Leone, who he knew previously. In the field Visco junior is accused of having obtained the refund of part of the fees invoiced by the lawyer for services that were never actually carried out.
Corruption: Gabriele Visco intercepted, I will collect credits..
“Then for goodness sake, now I will collect all the credits I have to collect around for goodness sake… that's the minimum”. This is what Gabriele Visco states in an interception cited in the precautionary order commenting on his dismissal from Invitalia. For the investigating judge this sentence represents “confirmation of the solidity and profitability of his relationships on which he will be able to continue to count despite the dismissal. Furthermore, it is always Visco who, immediately after his dismissal, is concerned with safeguarding the lawyer Leone (also arrested ed.) so that he can continue his relationship as a consultant with Invitalia despite the inconsistency of his professional services, asserting that Leone is fundamental for him for a series of relationships which, evidently, he has every intention of maintaining good”.
Corruption: investigating judge Rome, suspects ready for any compromise
“Not even Visco's dismissal from Invitalia on 12 April 2023 undermines his ability to continue with illicit activities just as it does not undermine that of the others since what the investigative findings have revealed is that the circumvention of the rules for the pursuit of one's objectives of economic or private interest constitutes a real modus operandi of all the suspects, available for any form of compromise”. Rome investigating judge Maria Gaspari writes this in the 67-page precautionary order against four people, including Gabriele Visco, in a proceeding in which the crimes of corruption and illicit influence peddling are alleged. The investigating judge adds that “none of them has ever shown any hesitation in making requests of an illicit nature or in obtaining undue remuneration and compensation, therefore it is evident that this is precisely their way of operating, characterized by complete disregard of the public interests violated”. From the point of view of precautionary requirements, we further read, “there is a concrete and current danger of repetition of the crime by all the suspects against whom the prosecutor has made the request for a precautionary measure”. A “widespread system of illicit relationships is highlighted in which Visco, as a qualified mediator or as a corrupt person, on the one hand and private individuals, entrepreneurs and consultants, on the other, move with absolute ease, confirming that the illicit relationship is consolidated for some time, fueled by the prestigious or in any case important positions that each of the protagonists holds in their own field, so much so that they are mutually considered necessary for the achievement of their respective private interests”.
Who is Gabriele Visco
Born in 1972, with a background in Telecom, son of Vincenzo Visco, who was minister in the governments of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Giuliano Amato and deputy minister with Romano Prodi and Massimo D'Alema, the arrested manager ended up in the center of the news in 2007 , when he first became a consultant and then manager of Sviluppo Italia, the company that deals with attracting investments and business development. What caused controversy was the fact that the spa is controlled by the ministry of via XX Settembre, where at the time Visco senior occupied the position of deputy minister.
THE POSITION OF INVITALIA
“With reference to the events involving a former employee, Invitalia specifies that it has ceased all employment relationships with Mr. Gabriele Visco at the beginning of 2023. The Agency is at the disposal of the investigating authorities to provide all the necessary information and documents and will evaluate every possible action in order to protect one's position as an injured party”.
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