(ANSA) – MILAN, JAN 17 – A Milan judge on Friday sent Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè to trial for alleged false accounting at her former publishing company Visibilia.
The 63-year-old minister, who resigned from her roles in Visibilia, a publishing and advertising agency that is now in administration, before she became minister in 2022, has denied all wrongdoing.
She was among 17 people indicted on Friday over alleged false corporate communications, including her partner Dimitri Kunz and her sister Fiorella Garnero.
“It’s a decision that we expected, but which still leaves a bad taste in our mouth,” said Santanche’s defence lawyer Nicolo Pelanda.
“A few days ago we had submitted to the judge the results of a former case which had substantially undermined one of the assumptions today presented by the Prosecutor’s Office.
“The prosecutors say that the business plans contained excessively optimistic forecasts and so there was a need to devalue.
“But in the former proceedings the Milan finance police and prosecutors argued, instead, that the business plans had conservative forecasts and for this reason they had asked for them to be shelved”.
Prosecutors alleged that the balance sheets were manipulated between 2016 and 2022 to hide millions of euros of losses and enable the company to stay in business.
The trial, which will begin in March, may not be the only one that will stem from alleged wrongdoing related to the minister’s business activities.
Santanche, a lawmaker in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has survived a no confidence motion in the Senate over her former business allegedly failing to pay suppliers and dismissing workers without giving them redundancy payments and allegedly improperly receiving COVID aid, prompting calls for her to quit.
She has said she is innocent and has vowed to clear her name.
The opposition has called for her to resign.
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was recently acquitted over the alleged ‘abduction’ of migrants in 2019, while former culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned in a case involving his lover last year. (ANSA).
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The 63-year-old minister, who resigned from her roles in Visibilia, a publishing and advertising agency that is now in administration, before she became minister in 2022, has denied all wrongdoing.
She was among 17 people indicted on Friday over alleged false corporate communications, including her partner Dimitri Kunz and her sister Fiorella Garnero.
“It’s a decision that we expected, but which still leaves a bad taste in our mouth,” said Santanche’s defence lawyer Nicolo Pelanda.
“A few days ago we had submitted to the judge the results of a former case which had substantially undermined one of the assumptions today presented by the Prosecutor’s Office.
“The prosecutors say that the business plans contained excessively optimistic forecasts and so there was a need to devalue.
“But in the former proceedings the Milan finance police and prosecutors argued, instead, that the business plans had conservative forecasts and for this reason they had asked for them to be shelved”.
Prosecutors alleged that the balance sheets were manipulated between 2016 and 2022 to hide millions of euros of losses and enable the company to stay in business.
The trial, which will begin in March, may not be the only one that will stem from alleged wrongdoing related to the minister’s business activities.
Santanche, a lawmaker in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has survived a no confidence motion in the Senate over her former business allegedly failing to pay suppliers and dismissing workers without giving them redundancy payments and allegedly improperly receiving COVID aid, prompting calls for her to quit.
She has said she is innocent and has vowed to clear her name.
The opposition has called for her to resign.
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was recently acquitted over the alleged ‘abduction’ of migrants in 2019, while former culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned in a case involving his lover last year. (ANSA).
Read article…
