The president of the Region Giovanni Toti and the head of the Cabinet Matteo Cozzani are being investigated for forgery by the Genoa prosecutor’s office: investigators suspect that the infection numbers for April 2021 may have been “adjusted” upwards to receive more doses. A file has also been opened, which concerns other people, on health devices sold during the pandemic
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A health line is also opening up in the investigation into the alleged corruption system in Liguria. The president of the Region Giovanni Toti and Matteo Cozzani, head of the Cabinet, are investigated for forgery by the Genoa prosecutor’s office: investigators suspect that the data on Covid infections for spring 2021 may have been “inflated” to obtain more vaccines from the extraordinary commissioner’s structure Francesco Paolo Figliuolo. But the investigation into the health sector could also be closed, let it be known The 19th Century. In addition to Cozzani – who was interrogated in La Spezia and denied the charges – Roberto Spinelli, son of the entrepreneur Aldo, was also heard by the investigators: he answered the investigating judge’s questions. Meanwhile, the investigators explain, during the investigations a possible maxi-fraud on the marketing of masks against the coronavirus emerged: this latest trend however involves other people.
The interception
Let’s go back to April 2021. In Liguria, the newspaper recalls, there was impatience with the queues and the difficult accessibility to the vaccination hubs. In an interception, Cozzani tells the interlocutor: “I had already doctored the data… He (the reference is to Toti, ed) took them, increased them again. When he sent them back to me, I looked and wrote to him: ‘Pres, but I’m out’. He (always Toti, ed.) then he said: ‘But no, I increased them a little’. So I told him: ‘But I had already done it.’ And he (always Toti, ed.): ‘And tell me…'”. As mentioned, the Genoa prosecutor’s office could however dismiss it. In fact, the former members of the government’s commissioner structure explained that they sent the doses based on their criteria and not referring only to what communicated by the Regions.
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Cozzani’s lawyer: “He is calm and calm”
At the prosecutor’s office in La Spezia, Cozzani made some spontaneous statements in front of the investigating judge Mario De Bellis. “He is calm and at ease in being able to clarify all the charges, which he disputes, despite living in a difficult situation. At the moment he is not yet able to respond on the merits – said his lawyer Massimo Ceresa Gastaldo as he left the Palace of Justice -. He pointed out that the precautionary needs, from our point of view, do not exist because he has not held the position of mayor of Porto Venere for years and also because, due to the media outcry of the affair, he will no longer hold the role of head of Cabinet”.
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The question of private laboratories
As he writes The 19th Century, the investigators are examining not only the issue of vaccines, but also the “potential exchange of favors between the owners of some private laboratories and Toti”. The institutes, explains the newspaper, were financiers of the politician’s foundation and electoral committees and sometimes “obtained agreements or expanded their presence from La Spezia to Ventimiglia”. But even in this case they are hypotheses for now: in the investigators’ files it is generically of illicit financing, without precise names registered in the register of suspects (limited to this further area).
A huge fraud on Covid masks discovered
Investigating the exchange vote between the Riesi and Calabrian communities and Toti’s list, the investigators also discovered a huge fraud of one million and 200 thousand euros on health supplies during Covid, in particular masks, which cannot be found in the midst of the pandemic and are precious like gold in phase two for schools and public places. This is what emerges from the documents filed as part of the investigation. In this new and unexpected trend, the name of the President of the Region does not appear.
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THE INVESTIGATION
In the last few hours, a new accusation against the governor Giovanni Toti has emerged from the investigation papers which have shaken Ligurian politics and beyond: in addition to those of continued simple corruption and corruption aggravated by having facilitated the mafia, there it is the accusation of forgery. Let’s take stock of the suspects and the charges. Go to the photo gallery
THE ORIGIN
The investigation – which saw the district attorney’s office request and obtain house arrest for president Toti, his chief of staff Matteo Cozzani (photo), the logistics entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli, the former president of the port authority and other (suspended) by Iren Paolo Signorini, now in prison – was born in La Spezia. Antonio Patrono, chief prosecutor, was investigating the power system set up by Cozzani, then mayor of Portovenere and Toti’s head of cabinet: he immediately understood that those papers contained the trigger for an earthquake Go to the photo gallery
RELATIONSHIPS
At the time of the events (Ligurian regional elections of September 2020), Cozzani was coordinator of the “Let’s change with Toti President” list and mayor of Portovenere. He was investigating the relationships with some entrepreneurs who were trying to “land” on the island of Palmaria. There emerges Cozzani’s relationship with the brothers Arturo and Italo Testa, former exponents of FI in Lombardy considered close to the regional coordinator Alessandro Sorte, and with Venanzio Maurici, a retired CGIL trade unionist, according to the investigators the representative of the Riesi (Caltanissetta) clan affiliated with Cosa Nostra Go to the photo gallery