An MEP for former three-time premier
and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia
(FI) party and the Lombardy head of Italian industrial employers
group Confindustria were placed under investigation for illegal
party funding over a payment of over 30,000 euros on Wednesday.
FI MEP Lara Comi is under investigation for illegal party
funding in a big Milan graft probe involving politicians,
businesspeople and allegedly the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta
mafia, sources said Wednesday.
At least two regional FI high-ups have already been
implicated in the probe, in which a total of 43 people were
arrested earlier this month.
Marco Bonometti, the president of Confindustria's Lombardy
chapter and president of the Brescia-based company Officine
Meccaniche Rezzatesi, is also being probed by Milan's DDA
anti-mafia investigators for illicit funding, investigative
sources said Wednesday.
Bonometti is also being investigated as part of the sweeping
kickbacks probe by Milan anti-mafia prosecutors in which the 43
arrest warrants were issued in Lombardy and Piedmont eight days
ago.
Bonometti, who is considered close to FI by investigators,
was questioned by magistrates over illicit funding worth 31,000
euros allegedly given to companies linked to Comi, allegedly for
a consultancy, according to the sources.
Comi's lawyer said "the consultancy was legal and there was
no illegal funding".
A key suspect in the Milan probe into kickbacks between
politicians and businessmen allegedly involving the 'Ndrangheta
mafia remained under house arrest this week.
Fabio Altitonante, an FI Lombardy regional councillor, saw
his plea to be released rejected Monday after a judge found he
was still "influential".
Altitonante could still commit crimes, the judge said,
meaning he had to stay under house arrest.
Altitonante and an FI European election candidate, Pietro
Tatarella, were among those arrested in the kickbacks probe by
Milan anti-mafia prosecutors on May 7.
FI councillor Altitonante, regional undersecretary for
the Expo area for the Lombardy regional government, was taken
into custody along with Milanese city councillor, deputy FI
regional coordinator, MP and European Parliament candidate
Pietro Tatarella.
Altitonante and Tatarella had both had a precocious start
leading to promising careers in the party of former three-time
premier and media magnate Berliusconi, and had been dubbed
'golden boys'.
Also arrested was a businessman in the waste management and
environmental clean-up sector, Daniele D'Alfonso, who owns the
Ecol-Service company.
Prosecutors said Tatarella was on D'Alfonso's "pay book" and
received 5,000 euros a month for steering contracts of waste
company AMSA his way as well as other contracts in Varese and
Novara, where another FI MP, Diego Sozzani, was said to be
"active".
Sozzani said he would resign if there were a "shadow" of
proof against him.
Tatarella was caught on a wiretap urging other suspects:
"let's try and get into the area of the former Expo".
Another of those arrested, ex FI provincial coordinator in
Varese Gioacchino Caianiello, was said to be the "puppet master"
for many of the kickbacks.
Illicit funding to the nationalist Brothers of Italy (FdI)
party was also unearthed, prosecutors said, a claim the party
denied.
Prosecutors said there was also an episode of "instigation to
corruption" regarding Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana, who is
the injured party and is not under investigation.
"I'm the injured party, I'll talk to the prosecutors,"
Fontana said.
Prosecutors said they were "evaluating the position" of
Fontana, who is accused of abuse of office in relation to the
appointment of a former law partner to a regional post.
Overall, some 43 warrants were issued in the probe against
two criminal groups, operating between Milan and Varese and made
up of local politicians, civil servants and business people,
some with alleged 'Ndrangheta links.
Those served warrants are accused of conspiracy to commit
crimes aggravated by setting up a mafia type organisation,
corruption and bid rigging, aimed at sharing out pubic
contracts.
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