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ITALY

Italian financier arrested in Lugano for tax fraud

Swiss police have arrested fugitive Italian financier Marco Marenco, wanted for fraud and tax evasion in his country, in Lugano, according to police and media reports.

Published: 25 April 2015 08:48 CEST
Italian financier arrested in Lugano for tax fraud
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in gangster film Borsalino. Photo: AFP

The 59-year-old, who bought iconic Italian hatmaker Borsalino and owns energy and gas companies in Asia, was arrested following a request from Italy, a police spokesman in the Swiss city told AFP.
   
"We did this job for Italy," he said, refusing to provide further details.
   
Regional Swiss newspaper Corriere del Ticino also reported the arrest. 

Italy's ANSA news agency quoted sources as saying that Rome had launched extradition proceedings.
   
Marenco was on the run abroad after his network of Italian and foreign companies got involved in a €3-billion ($3.2- billion) crash, Italian media reported.

Marenco had bought Borsalino, which was set up in 1857, to diversify his portfolio.

The company has served an A-list clientele from former Japanese emperor Hirohito to Hollywood greats like Humphrey Bogart, Warren Beatty and Gary Cooper.
   
The company, whose fedoras and Panama hats are sold in upmarket outlets, even has movie credits including the 1970 gangster classic 'Borsalino' starring two of France's biggest stars — Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

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ACCIDENT

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident

Thirteen people, including German tourists, have been killed after a cable car disconnected and fell near the summit of the Mottarone mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

Published: 23 May 2021 14:15 CEST
Updated: 23 May 2021 16:46 CEST
German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident
The local emergency services published this photograph of the wreckage. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

The accident was announced by Italy’s national fire and rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, at 13.50 on Sunday, with the agency saying over Twitter that a helicopter from the nearby town of Varese was on the scene. 

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps confirmed that there were 13 victims and two seriously injured people.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that German tourists were among the 13 victims.

According to their report, there were 15 passengers inside the car — which can hold 35 people — at the time a cable snapped, sending it tumbling into the forest below. Two seriously injured children, aged nine and five, were airlifted to hospital in Turin. 

The cable car takes tourists and locals from Stresa, a resort town on Lake Maggiore up to a panoramic peak on the Mottarone mountain, reaching some 1,500m above sea level. 

According to the newspaper, the car had been on its way from the lake to the mountain when the accident happened, with rescue operations complicated by the remote forest location where the car landed. 

The cable car had reopened on April 24th after the end of the second lockdown, and had undergone extensive renovations and refurbishments in 2016, which involved the cable undergoing magnetic particle inspection (MPI) to search for any defects. 

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Twitter that he expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims, with special thoughts for the seriously injured children and their families”.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini told Italy’s Tg1 a commission of inquiry would be established, according to Corriere della Sera: “Our thoughts go out to those involved. The Ministry has initiated procedures to set up a commission and initiate checks on the controls carried out on the infrastructure.”

“Tomorrow morning I will be in Stresa on Lake Maggiore to meet the prefect and other authorities to decide what to do,” he said.

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