Palermo, the principal who is a symbol of anti-mafia arrested for embezzlement

Daniela Lo Verde, the iconic principal of the Giovanni Falcone school in the Zen district, is among those arrested by the Palermo Carabinieri on charges of embezzlement and corruption as part of an investigation into the mismanagement of public spending funds.

The same measure was also taken against vice principal Daniele Agosta, who, together with Lo Verde, allegedly stole food for the school cafeteria, computers, and tablets intended for students and purchased with European funding provided for various PON projects.

This is the first assessment of an investigation coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, launched in February 2022 following a teacher's complaint. The images from a hidden camera in the room of Daniela Lo Verde, who has also been awarded the title of Knight of the Republic, were crucial.

Finally, the military also served a house arrest order on the employee of a company that sold computer equipment.

Public administration as "a well from which to constantly draw any useful resource, from the latest generation technological tools to foodstuffs."

This is how, according to the Carabinieri of the EPPO section of the Palermo Investigative Unit, the principal of the Falcone dello Zen institute, Daniela Lo Verde, and her deputy, Daniele Agosta, arrested this morning as part of an investigation into corruption and embezzlement coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office prosecutors Gery Ferarra and Amelia Luise, considered their role as public officials.

"Their conduct - the investigators explain - rare particularly serious in light of their complete adherence to purely utilitarian logics of conduct, the instrumentalization of administrative action and the vocation to consider the public administration as a well from which to constantly draw any utility, from the latest generation technological tools to foodstuffs".

To make matters worse, according to the men of the Carabinieri, there would be the fact that the principal would have "constantly fueled her public image as a promoter of legality, despite her daily illegal activities and constant attention to the economic implications of her administrative actions.

In effect, it is abandoning its role of oversight and management aimed at ensuring the smooth running of the Falcone Institute, which serves a particularly vulnerable group of students, including those already disadvantaged by the degraded social and cultural context of the Zen neighborhood.