Home » He favored the Sicilian shipping company Ustica Lines: former undersecretary for the economy Simona Vicari was sent to trial for corruption

He favored the Sicilian shipping company Ustica Lines: former undersecretary for the economy Simona Vicari was sent to trial for corruption

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There is also the former Undersecretary for Economic Development Simona Vicari in the corruption pact organized to favor the Sicilian shipping company Ustica Lines (now Liberty Lines) in the award of regional tenders through which the Sicilian Region granted public contributions for naval connections fast between Sicily and the smaller islands.

In 2017, the carabinieri discovered the network of bribes in exchange for favors during an investigation coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor’s office and then transferred to the Trapani prosecutor’s office. This is the survey called “Mare Monstrum”, the so-called “tangentopoli del mare”. Deus ex machina of corruption the shipowners Vittorio and Ettore Morace, father and son, owners of Ustica Lines. Vittorio left the investigation for recognized irreversible inability to participate in the trial. Morace jr has already negotiated two sentences for corruption, the first at 18 months, the second, today, before the gup of the Court of Trapani, Judge Nodari, at 21 months (suspended sentence).

The same judge, condemning Morace jr, sentenced the former undersecretary for economic development, the Palermo senator Simona Vicari, to trial for corruption. Senator Vicari is accused of having favored the Morace family, while holding the position of undersecretary in the government chaired by Enrico Letta, approving an amendment within the 2017 national budget that favored the shipping company, receiving a Rolex in exchange. from 5 thousand euros. Senator Vicari resigned as undersecretary in 2017 after learning about the investigation.

According to the prosecutors, he would have pushed for an amendment to be approved in Parliament in favor of the shipping company which provided for the reduction of VAT on tickets for connections to the smaller islands. In exchange he would have received a Rolex worth five thousand and 800 euros as a gift from Morace (returned to the prosecutors by the Vicari when she was questioned), but he would have received from Morace jr a Bulgari watch, snake model, for 7,800 euros. The former regional manager, Salvatrice Severino and Giuseppe Montalto, at the time head of the secretariat of the regional councilor Pistorio, were also indicted with Senator Vicari.

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Among the politicians involved in the investigation were the former Governor Rosario Crocetta, whose position remained the responsibility of the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the former regional deputy Girolamo Fazio (Forza Italia) against whom the trial is already underway before the Court of Trapani. According to the accusation, the Morace shipowners had entered into a corruptive pact with Severino, director of the Transport Department of the Sicilian Region, in charge of preparing tenders for connections with the smaller islands, favoring the interests of the shipping company. The carabinieri of the investigative units of Palermo and Trapani searched the manager’s house and got their hands on eighteen diaries, written between 2000 and 2017, by Giuseppe Naccari, former carabiniere, husband of Severino, in which the illicit reports brought were “reconstructed. ahead of the regional manager with Vittorio Morace ”.

The tenders would have allowed the Moraces to earn over ten million more from 2008 to 2014 than they were entitled to with the mechanism of financial compensation for maritime transport services never made by the company. In exchange, the executive would have received gold and diamond jewelry, Chanel bags, travel and the hiring of her daughter at Ustica Lines as a gift. Montalto then would have been the longa manus of the Moraces within the regional transport department and would have worked to block the appointment of a consultant, the commander Giuseppe Prestigiacomo, a lot of sending to Ettore Morace, who for this was sentenced to compensation, and for facilitate the current regional deputy Marianna Caronia (whose position has been closed) to obtain from Morace a maxi severance payment of 100 thousand euros.

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Another section of the investigation was transferred to the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office and concerns the former president of the Cga, judge Raffaele De Lipsis.

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