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Rome’s former mayor gets six years in jail for corruption

A former mayor of Rome was sentenced to six years in prison Monday for his part in the infiltration of organised crime into the capital, and immediately vowed to appeal.

Published: 25 February 2019 15:25 CET

Rome's former mayor gets six years in jail for corruption

Gianni Alemanno served as Rome mayor from 2008 to 2013. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP

“I'm innocent, I have always said it and I will repeat it before the judges on appeal,” said Gianni Alemanno, mayor of the city from 2008 to 2013, who was convicted of corruption.

He and his legal team will launch an appeal as soon as they have read the ruling, Alemanno told reporters.

In the 2015 Mafia Capitale scandal, investigators uncovered a vast network of influence-peddling taking in criminals, businessmen and politicians. In all, prosecutors sent 46 defendants for trial.

They accused Alemanno of having received more than 200,000 euros from various sources in return for appointing a key figure in the scandal to a senior post.

Prosecutors said he also directed city funds to a cooperative run by another figure in the network of corruption.

The head of the network was Massimo Carminati, a former far-right activist already convicted of membership of a criminal gang in the capital in the 1980s.

According to the indictment, his right-hand man was Salvatore Buzzi, the head of a cooperative that worked for the Rome city council. Buzzi served as an intermediary between the political world and the criminal network run by Carminati.

Both men were convicted on appeal in a separate trial in September 2018. Carminati was sentenced to 14 and a half years in jail; Buzzi to 18 years and four months.

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Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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