The trial, which will open on March 20th in the Court of Milan, for Minister Daniela Santanchè and 16 other defendants, including his partner Dimitri Kunz and his sister Fiorella Garnero, is the first relating to the "package" of investigations opened by the Prosecutor's Office on his companies.
It arose from the investigation launched in 2022 following a complaint filed by a group of small shareholders for serious irregularities in the management of the Visibilia group, founded by the senator, who held positions between 2014 and the end of 2021.
The minister, investigated in October three years ago, is accused of false corporate communications as a former administrator and president, as well as "economic subject of reference" of the publishing group, which published, among others, Novella 2000.
And he is answering for the charges related to both Visibilia Editore and Visibilia srl in liquidation, even though today the preliminary hearing judge Anna Magelli declared the charges on the balance sheets, which started in 2016, time-barred for some years. A first bankruptcy charge, however, had already fallen with a request for archiving.
The investigations of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Gdf, coordinated by prosecutors Marina Gravina and Luigi Luzi and by former deputy Laura Pedio (now prosecutor in Lodi), have highlighted alleged falsified balance sheets for seven years, between 2016 and 2022, to hide million-dollar “losses”, to allow the group to remain afloat, deceiving investors, and to continue to make “profit” from companies that are still active.
One of the “key” disputes concerns the registration “in the assets of the balance sheet”, in the balance sheets of Visibilia Editore, of the goodwill, i.e. the intrinsic value of the company, for figures ranging from over 3,8 million euros to approximately 3,2 million, “without proceeding” to the “complete write-down” already in December 2016.
“Everyone knew and everyone kept quiet” about the irregularities in the accounts and the crisis of Visibilia, including the businesswoman and senator, according to the prosecutors. Santanchè has always reiterated his innocence, because, according to the lawyer Nicolò Pelanda, there has never been “any make-up operation”, nothing was ever “hidden” and the partners were always “informed about the losses”.
In the meantime, on March 31st of last year Visibilia Editore and Editrice ended up in judicial administration (extended until January XNUMXst), after the civil suit filed by the small shareholders, led by Giuseppe Zeno and defended by the lawyer Antonio Piantadosi. And Santanchè recently also sold all the shares he had in Visibilia Editore.
The other chapter on which the FdI senator risks trial is the alleged aggravated fraud against INPS on the redundancy fund in Visibilia during the Covid period. On January 29, the Court of Cassation will have to decide on the jurisdiction between Milan or Rome.
In addition, the minister is under investigation for bankruptcy after the failure of Ki Group srl, a company in the bio-food galaxy once led by her. Judicial liquidation that, in December, also started for Bioera, another company of the group, also announcing bankruptcy profiles in this case.
Finally, two other cases touch the parliamentarian: the one concerning the sale of the villa in Forte dei Marmi of Francesco Alberoni, purchased by Kunz and Laura De Cicco, wife of the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, and the Negma case, a fund based in the Emirates and the British Virgin Islands.
Article published on 17 January 2025 - 15:45
