The Sorrento system as "St. Patrick's Well" for former mayor Massimo Coppola

Ccorruption, extortion, bid-rigging: the Sorrento system was Mayor Massimo Coppola's St. Patrick's well.

A seemingly inexhaustible reserve of cash donated by entrepreneurs and companies, often artfully 'selected' for the construction of public works in the municipality of the Sorrento Peninsula: this is the prosecution's hypothesis.

There's Mayor Massimo Coppola, then there are his loyalists and associates in the "system," and finally there are the entrepreneur-grantors. But how much extra did it cost the companies to secure a public contract? According to investigators, the "kickback" for each individual award ranged from 6 to 7%.

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A percentage that would have mostly gone straight to the mayor's pocket. It remains unclear, however, how much Coppola actually gave to those who assisted him in organizing the "system," starting with his right-hand man and most loyal associate, Raffaele Guida.

According to the Guardia di Finanza and the Torre Annunziata Prosecutor's Office, Guida's role was to collect and deliver the money. But that's not all.

For the public lighting contract on Viale degli Aranci, awarded to T. Impianti, owned by entrepreneur Luigi Todisco, the gang had devised a 'safe' method for transporting the illicit money.

 The fake hiring of Lello the Psychic” to hide the bribe

For the contract of approximately 500 thousand Euro, Coppola & C. asked for 10% of the amount, according to the investigators, and therefore to avoid 'circulating' cash for the payment of the bribe the entrepreneur hired Raphael Guide in a company in the same sector, Corbara Illuminazioni. In practice, Guida would have received a salary for doing nothing and the money would then be funneled to Coppola.

There were several stratagems used to conceal the illegal awarding of contracts to the Municipality of Sorrento. This was the case with the renovation and furnishing of the Teatro Comunale Tasso. In this case, according to investigators' findings, Michele Zambelli of Cinearredo in Sarnico, in the province of Bergamo, allegedly handed Raffaele Guida and Massimo Coppola €5 in cash to secure the contract to supply 342 new seats for the theater.

Several companies had participated in the open tender, but before the selection process began, the 'designated' company had already sent a quote, entrusting it to the municipal engineer Luigi Desiderio, who, among other things, was not responsible for the awarding process for that tender.

According to investigators, former mayor Coppola had trusted people who assisted him. Among them was engineer Vincenzo Rescigno, to whom the Municipality entrusted in 2023 a feasibility study for the urban regeneration of the pedestrian path behind the Marina Piccola beach resorts, near San Francesco beach. This direct assignment, illegal according to the Prosecutor's Office, resulted in Rescigno allegedly giving an unspecified sum of money to Guida and Coppola.

Municipal technician Michele Rescigno, a recurring figure in the Sorrento system

Engineer Rescigno is a recurring figure in the Sorrento System. During the tender for municipal road maintenance work—worth over one million euros—the design engineer allegedly called entrepreneur Luigi Di Palo to his private office to negotiate the 11% starting bid reduction that would have allowed him to win the contract.

Having won the tender, Di Palo of Di Palo & Company would have paid 5% of the cost of the works to Coppola, through Guida. On this occasion too, according to the investigation, the pact was made in Rescigno's private office.

The trick to channel the work to a friendly company would also have been used for the redevelopment of the Le Tore Heliport complex.

Coppola, with the complicity of the members of the evaluation commission and the municipal manager Graziano Maresca, allegedly attempted to "correct" the application of the company identified as the recipient of the contract: MGR srl of Vico Equense, owned by Aniello Vanacore.

The technicians provided confidential information to allow the company to adjust its offer and improve the price, thus winning the contract and ousting the competing company, Atlante srl, which had submitted a more advantageous offer for the Authority.

According to investigators, the Vanacore construction company of Vico Equense is considered a 'friendly' firm of the municipal administration and Mayor Massimo Coppola.

The entrepreneurs allegedly paid no less than 60 euros, equal to 7% of the cost of the renovation of the Passano and S. Valerio bastion, which was entrusted to the Rti led by Safo Costruzione and the client MGR of Vico Equense.

The role of the Vanacore cousins and Mario Parlato

Mario Parlato, also an entrepreneur and the recipient of other projects in the Sorrento municipality, is said to have acted as intermediary between Coppola-Guida and Aniello Vanacore for the payment of the bribe.

Also at the center of the investigation is the functional redevelopment of the Sorrento Senior Center, also awarded to the Edilforte group and its client, Mrg Vicana. For this work, the entrepreneurs allegedly handed over the €2000 bribe to Guida in 2024 upon approval of a change to the initial project.

Entrepreneur Mario Parlato is at the center of the case involving the redevelopment of Ibsen Park, included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). According to investigators' findings, Parlato handed over two bribes of €15 and €10 in May 2024 to repay his debt to Coppola for the contract.

But strangely, this money was disbursed after the company had received a 20% advance on the contract amount in April of last year. Having received the sum, Parlato paid the money in two installments the following month, handing it over to Guida.

The same advance mechanism was implemented for the upgrade works on Via Atigliana and Via Baranica, entrusted to Parlato's company, who is said to have paid the bribe agreed upon with Coppola on several occasions.