The judges of the Salerno Court of Appeal are called to decide on the proceedings related to the bankruptcy of Ifil, a company owned by Mario Del Mese and active in real estate consultancy.
Yesterday morning, in her closing speech, Deputy Attorney General Giovanna Lerose requested a two-year sentence for Piero De Luca, a member of parliament and regional secretary of the Democratic Party in Campania, charged with improper bankruptcy.
Sentences were also requested for the other defendants: two years and five months for Luigi Avino and Emilio Ferraro; one year and four months for Valentina Lamberti; and a two-month sentence (continuing a previous sentence) for Giuseppe Amato Jr. In the first instance, with the exception of Amato Jr., the defendants were acquitted of bankruptcy charges; the Prosecutor's Office, finding some parts of the reasoning unconvincing, appealed the decision.
At the heart of De Luca's case, acquitted in the first instance "because the act does not constitute a crime," is the charge relating to some airline tickets that, according to the prosecution, were paid for by Ifil.
According to the first instance judges, De Luca would not have had the role of hidden partner of the company and, above all, he would not have been aware that the advance payments by Del Mese - described as linked to reasons of practicality and cordial relations - came from the assets of the subsequently bankrupt LLC.
Travel and the distraction hypothesis
The Prosecutor's Office claims that De Luca received travel expenses to Luxembourg (where he worked before his election to Parliament) between 2009 and 2011, for a total of €23.
According to the prosecution's reconstruction, the relationship with Del Mese would also be indicative of a "hidden" participation in Ifil and therefore of awareness of the corporate origin of the sums, with the hypothesis of complicity in the diversion.
The accusation was always denied by the interested party. De Luca maintained that he paid for the tickets purchased by Del Mese at a travel agency linked to the Amato family, partly by bank transfer and the rest in cash. In the first trial, it was also highlighted that wiretaps did not reveal any involvement in business with Del Mese.
The other positions and the expected decision
As for the other defendants, the first-instance judges held that Avino and Ferraro, although formally directors, lacked real decision-making powers, which were in fact attributed to Del Mese, and that there was insufficient evidence of asset misappropriation; a similar assessment was made for Valentina Lamberti.
After the defense's arguments—including Professor Andrea Castaldo for De Luca, lawyers Enzo Caliendo (Lamberti), Luigi Gargiulo (Avino), Michele Tedesco (Ferraro), and Mariano Salvio (Amato)—the Court of Appeal will have to rule: it can either uphold the first-instance acquittals or overturn the verdict.
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Comments (2)
Mind you, the news is a bit stale…
The article is very interesting, but some things are unclear, such as De Luca's position, which seems complicated. It's difficult to determine whether he actually knew about the payments and how Ifil operated. I look forward to hearing the judges' decision.