“Contested financing that he reported” –

Political-judicial earthquake in Liguria. In the early hours of Tuesday 7 May, the Genoa financial police notified an arrest order under house arrest to the president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti. The accusation is that of corruption in the exercise of the function and for acts contrary to official duties. This was announced in a statement by Genoa’s chief prosecutor Nicola Piacente. In addition to Toti, coercive and interdictory measures were taken for the former president of the Port Authority and current CEO of Iren, Paolo Emilio Signorini, arrested and taken to prison on charges of corruption for the exercise of the function and for acts contrary to official duties.

The port entrepreneur and former president of Genoa, Aldo Spinelli, is the recipient of the interdictory measure of the temporary ban on carrying out entrepreneurial and professional activities, accused of corruption against the governor Toti. Against Signorini, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto, the investigating judge also ordered the preventive seizure of financial resources and assets for 570,000 euros, deemed to be profit from the contested corruption crimes. The details of the accusations emerge from the papers. Toti is accused of “having accepted the promises of various loans from Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli and received a total of 74,100 euros”, most of which as funding for the Giovanni Toti electoral committee. This is a circumstance which contributes to raising some doubts. “Toti, I read, was accused of having received funding for his electoral campaign which he denounced. I struggle to understand. However, for Toti I am a guarantor as I am with everyone, with Emiliano or for a governor of the Democratic Party: when he comes challenged someone for financing that he himself reported, I struggle to understand”, said the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, to L’aria che tira’ su La7, commenting on the arrest of the governor of Liguria. “There will be reasons that escape me. Judicial investigations should only be evaluated at the end”, continues the minister.

“The problem is not that there are judicial investigations – added Crosetto – the issue is to understand that judicial investigations should be evaluated only at the end of the process. While what happens instead is that with the notice of guarantee, especially in cases in which the person is arrested, everyone’s opinion is that they caught a guilty person. I, on the other hand, have the habit of reading the papers and when I read the complaints to Toti I didn’t really understand, given that he had regularly reported the financing”.