On the system that for the Milanese magistrates «allowed Brt-Bartolini Brt-Bartolini Of save 100 million a year» for about ten years «to the detriment of the workers and the Treasury» the Maginot line of the top management of the giant with a turnover of 1.7 billion, 4,000 workers hired and another 18,000 employed indirectly in the group acquired two years ago by the French post office for 1.2 billion collapses. And the admissions of managers, in front of the first ones two seizures of undue tax savings for 44 million in December 2022 and for another 24 million in January 2023, they bring down the veil on the fact that Brt-Bartolini’s anti-illegal organizational models «had no effect as they were built for mere “cosmetic” purposes»; is that “the top management was perfectly aware of the inadequacy of the tariffs imposed on supplierstariffs certainly not able to cover the costs and from which the evasion of VAT and the contributions of the cooperatives supplying manpower derived».
Bartolini in «judicial administration»
Because of this Brt-Bartolini from Monday morning is under “judicial administration” ordered by the prevention measures section of the Court of Milan presided over by Fabio Roia: the judges Maria Rispoli, Giuseppe Cernuto and Lucia Spagnuolo Vigorita, at the request of the prosecutor Paolo Storari, looking for an effective but “as least invasive” measure, they did not dispossess the property altogether, but appointed a judicial administratorRiccardo Bonivento who will support the board of directors for a year «in the function of “mentoring”» to reclaim the company, strengthen the controls «and prevent further situations facilitating illegal activities from occurring again».
The investigations
Already the investigations on a sample of 34 coop suppliers of 3,434 drivers to the Brt, and the stories of some workers, had led the Public Prosecutor’s Office to recognize «a systematic illicit brokerage of manpower»: no autonomy of the co-ops and their actual management by Brt, non-compliance with the rules on safety and medical checks, continuous change of co-op and therefore loss of seniority and accrued rights, recourse to the practice of double transfer in spite of the apparent paycheck, “owners” drivers forced to pay the installment of the van and the insurance and the fuel and any repairs.
Now it emerges that Brt’s labor law consultant, the labor law lawyer Gianluca Spolverato, questioned on February 23 by the prosecutor, explained that Brt manages all the economic part of the tenders as regards the porterage sector, and that the “owners” who work for Brt receive a minimum paycheckand the rest is paid by bank transfer but contributions are not paid on the difference.
And he reveals that precisely from within the Brt, “the arrangement had been given to change the cooperative every two years and open another one in order not to bring out fiscal criticalities that could reverberate on Brt”, in a system perfectly “aware of the managing director Costantino Dalmazio Manti”. Who, questioned on 6 March and self-suspended, also opens a window on the hypothesis of a crime of “corruption between private individuals” within Brt, namely admits to having received from suppliers of the group (in exchange for them being selected by Brt) around 1 million euros in private bribes between 2016 and 2022, the last 200,000 with the help of Sprinkled. «Brt’s code of ethics, when compared with the statements made by Manti and Spolverato, plastically demonstrates – points out the prosecutor – the concept of organizational “decoupling”: that is, the fact that, in parallel with the formal structure aimed at following the institutional rules, another informal structure develops, aimed at following the rules of efficiency and results. In this way the constant and systematic violation of the rules generates the normalization of deviance, in a context where irregularities and illicit practices are accepted and in some way promoted as considered normal».
Also fit for Geodis
A similar judicial administration is now ordered by the Court also against Geodis CL Italia, another company in the sector also already affected by a seizure of 37 million months ago. But the peculiarity here is that the partial receivership intervenes to prevent the company from continuing to facilitate the crime of money laundering contested by the main representative of the coops used as illicit labor reservoirs, Antonio Suma: a legal development (money laundering by others as a prerequisite) which in the future could therefore extend the range of operations of the instrument of judicial administration of a company. lferrarella@breaking latest news