“Unicusano evaded 20 million” –

That strange coincidence of the accusation immediately after the political agreement with Fratelli d’Italia

Augusto Parboni

September 17, 2024

Taxes not paid by UniCusano, investigations closed on the university administrator Stefano Bandecchi and three other suspects. The Rome prosecutor’s office has therefore put an end to the investigation into the alleged income taxes (IRES) that would not have been paid by the online university from 2016 to 2021, equal to approximately 20 million. A judicial act that arrives, it is certainly a coincidence, 24 hours after the agreement that Bandecchi (Alternativa Popolare) reached with the center-right.

In the eight pages of the investigation conclusion, the investigators list the alleged tax evasions by the Niccolò Cusano Telematics University. For example, regarding the year 2016, the prosecutor’s office writes that “in order to evade corporate income tax, they failed to indicate in the 2017 IRES declaration for the 2016 tax year taxable items equal to 9,826,648 million, effectively evading a total IRES of 2,358,395 euros by taking advantage of the illicit use of the tax relief provided for by article 74 of the Consolidated Law on Income Tax, to be interpreted in light of the provision of article 1, paragraph 721 of Law 160/2019, which resulted in the undue exemption from the aforementioned tax in place of the application of the IRES rate of 24%, exceeding the expected punishability thresholds”.

A charge that the prosecutors repeat for the following years, arriving at an alleged tax evasion of approximately 20 million euros. For the year 2017, the prosecution contests an evasion of 2,908,702 million, for 2018 instead 3,932,072 million, for the year 2020 5,963,524 million euros and for the following year finally 2,653,732 million. Just yesterday Stefanbo Bandecchi commented on the agreement with the center-right: «The stimulus to bring our contribution to the next electoral round in Umbria came precisely from the center-right following whose agreement I made official the withdrawal of my candidacy for President of the Region. After all, I remember, I was a militant of FI for many years alongside Silvio Berlusconi, then our paths diverged as he was more right-wing and I was more centrist. And as centrists we will bring our ideas, our principles and our visions to the right, which can now even more right-wing, “said the leader of Alternativa Popolare. And again: “I want to underline that we have not merged, given the difference between us and the other parties in the group – continued Bandecchi – we simply share ideas to reach a final position together: this is the liberal democracy of the center-right. We will be, in essence, the left of the center-right and we will operate in synergy”.

And when asked if the center will ever have political autonomy, the leader of Alternativa Popolare replied, “I dream that both right-wing and left-wing extremism will disappear. Like De Gasperi, I am for balance.” Finally, on the judiciary and the Salvini case, “it is becoming too aggressive.” And now Bandecchi will have to defend himself from the accusations of the Rome prosecutor’s office, which, with the conclusion of the investigation in 20 days, could request his indictment.