Sogei director-general arrested in Rome corruption probe

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 15 - Rome finance police on Tuesday searched the offices and homes of public officials and companies over a corruption probe related to calls for tender in the telecommunications and computer sectors by State-owned technology company Sogei Spa , the ministries of interior and security, the State attorney's office in the Italian capital said on Tuesday. The companies involved in the search operation included Digital Value Spa and Olidata Spa.
    Late on Monday, the director general of Sogei, Paolino Iorio, was arrested together with an entrepreneur on corruption charges as part of the investigation coordinated by Rome State attorneys.
    The two men were caught red handed by finance police while Iorio was receiving 15,000 euros from the businessman and the money was seized by security officials, investigative sources said.
    Overall, 18 people and 14 companies are being probed on corruption and auction rigging charges, investigative sources said.
    Finance police said the "corruption system" discovered had "ramifications both within the ministry of the defence, as well as in Sogei and finally in the ministry of interior", according to court documents on the probe that led to the arrests and the search operations carried out on Tuesday.
    In wiretapped conversations involving the entrepreneur arrested Monday together with the director general of Sogei, "contacts emerged along with meetings" with an official who was "later identified as an Italian Navy captain", investigators said.
    The first contacts revealed that the captain, who was involved in a contract, had asked for money and for a person to be hired by "one of the companies managed by the entrepreneurs" involved in the probe, according to the State attorney's documents that led to the operation on Tuesday.
    Court documents also revealed that Andrea Stroppa, 30, considered as "Elon Musk's contact in Italy", is among those probed by Rome prosecutor. In particular, finance police wrote in a report quoted in the search decree, that the Navy official under investigation, "in learning about a project aimed at the acquisition by the government of a satellite system" produced by Elon Musk's Starlink, "took advantage of a meeting" on the issue to "get to know and subsequently contact the Italian contact of the group, Andrea Stroppa". (ANSA).