Businessman Gian Marco
Rossignolo and his son Gianluca were convicted on Wednesday and
sentenced to five years, six months and four years, 10 months,
respectively, for the 2012 bankruptcy of sports and luxury
carmaker De Tomaso Automobili SpA.
Rossignolo, 89, and his son were convicted along with six
other people for bankruptcy, fraud against the region of
Piedmont and the economy ministry, and embezzlement.
The veteran chairman of the De Tomaso carmaker, Gian Mario
Rossignolo, was placed under house arrest by tax police in July
2012 for alleged misuse of public funds in a recent failed
project to use an ex-Pininfarina factory to make SUVs.
Rossignolo was detained with the head of De Tomaso's
personnel office and a financial intermediary.
De Tomaso filed for bankruptcy earlier in 2012 after
Rossignolo, a former Fiat and briefly Telecom Italia executive,
failed to muster financial backing for a plan to relaunch the
firm, which used to make the famed Pantera sports car.
Police said Rossignolo and the others may have fraudulently
used European Union and Piedmont regional government funds and
may have pocketed some of them.
Among his recent failed endeavours, Rossignolo planned to
make a city car and SUV at the ex-Fiat plant at Termini Imerese
in Sicily, but the project fell through.
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