By now he was just a few meters from the steps of the plane that would have taken him back to Brazil to protect him from the Italian Justice when the soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza of Merano appeared at his side and, instead, accompanied him to the prison of Busto Arsizio. This is the outcome of an escape attempt that ended at dawn last Saturday at the international departures area of the Milan Malpensa Airport and which involved the owner of Lazzeri SS Agricola, a leading company in the Italian floriculture industry operating for decades, with headquarters in Merano (BZ) and a production unit in Sabaudia (LT), responsible for a millionaire crack.
For over a year now, the Merano financial police, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bolzano, had been on the trail of the entrepreneur who, together with his family and with the complicity of trusted collaborators and professionals, had led, in 2017, to the bankruptcy of the company in debt to banks, suppliers, employees and, due to significant tax and social security evasion, to INPS and the Treasury for a total amount of over 20 million euros.
The figure of the entrepreneur immediately became central to the investigations which highlighted how the business carried out by the bankrupt company had regularly continued under his direction through a new company – Lazzeri Soc. Agricola a rl – to which all the company assets had been transferred, that is, the tangible assets (land, buildings, plantations) used under a rental contract with a negligible rent (€120.000 per year), as well as the machinery, stocks, patents, brand and company know-how without any provision for compensation and net of any liabilities.
The financial crisis was found to have been caused by a systematic appropriation, since 2011, by the partners/directors of the financial resources available on the company accounts and private accounts, quantifiable at approximately 2,4 million euros, of the sums in cash deriving from "black" sales, equal to approximately 1,6 million euros, as well as by the transfer of funds, equal to a total of approximately 11 million euros, in favor of a Brazilian company, Agro Industrial Lazzeri SA, operating for decades in the floriculture sector in Brazil where the defendant had moved permanently with his wife and children in the last two years.
For this reason, when he returned to Italy on the weekend of the Immaculate Conception, the financial police verified that he, after a two-day break in the province of Bolzano, went to the production unit of Lazzeri Soc. Agricola a rl located in Sabaudia (LT) and remained there until Friday evening, when, instead of returning to Merano, he reached the intercontinental airport of Malpensa from which, without the intervention of the yellow flames, at 06.20 the following day, he would have returned to Brazil with a flight to Porto Alegre.
The arrest carried out by the military was validated by the judicial authority which, in light of the investigative findings, simultaneously applied the measure of precautionary custody in prison to the interested party.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Choose the social channel you want to subscribe to