what does a Pope have to do with it –

Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, was targeted by investigators as early as April 2022, along with two of his key aides: Morris Ceron, director general and chief of staff, and Derek Donadini, deputy chief of staff. Although the investigation had been ongoing for some time, Brugnaro learned that he was under investigation only on July 16, in conjunction with the arrests, seizures, and searches related to the inquiry. The Prosecutor’s Office adopted an unusual strategy to keep the names of those under investigation secret, opening a file with pseudonyms and using fictitious personal details, including unlikely references to historical figures such as a 7th-century pontiff: Sabiniano Miranese.

This stratagem, reports the Gazzettino, allowed for over two years of investigations to be conducted without any notices of investigation being issued until the last possible moment. In addition to Brugnaro, Ceron and Donadini, the investigation also involved Ching Chiat Kwong, a Singaporean magnate interested in purchasing a plot of land in Venice known as “i Pili”. The details of the investigation remained known only to the preliminary investigations judge and the investigating magistrates, without any information leaking out. The use of pseudonyms and maintaining judicial secrecy for such a long time are an atypical procedure, usually reserved for very serious crimes or when there is a need to protect the suspects or other people involved. This method is often used in organized crime contexts, where premature disclosure of the investigation could put the lives of those involved at risk.

The north-eastern newspaper collected the comment of Brugnaro’s defender, Alessandro Rampinelli: “The secrecy of the names of some suspects in the case of particularly serious crimes, can be ordered by the Prosecutor (with a reasoned decree) for no more than three months and cannot be renewed. Such secrecy has however served no purpose, because if the aim was to prevent the mayor from learning about the investigation through a request to the criminal records office provided for by article 335 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, well Brugnaro never made that request, nor did he have reason to believe he was under investigation. He learned about the investigation the same day it was made explicit”.