Reward and value the “invisible examples”, or people who in their professional activity have distinguished themselves for the defense of the rule of law through the practice of integrity, responsibility and professionalism, albeit in difficult conditions due to ” environmental contexts ”polluted by criminal dynamics. This is the Giorgio Ambrosoli Award, now in its tenth edition and which takes place under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, with the patronage of the European Parliament, the Municipality of Milan, the Lombardy Region, the Milan Chamber of Commerce and the Piccolo Theater of Milan Theater of Europe. Co-promoters are Confcommercio – Imprese per l’Italia and Transparency International Italia.
This edition highlighted “the very peculiar strength and presence of civil society in Italy on the issues of the protection of the law, of the concrete work of citizens who with their individual actions generate a sort of unique voice, made up of many invisible examples, committed to strengthening the rule of law ”.
The theme addressed in the debate of this edition was the international perspective of the role of civil society, from businesses to the world of professions, the Third Sector, independent authorities and social research, in preventing and combating the underworld and market distortions.
The winners
Giovanni Castaldi and Claudio Clemente. In the summer of 2005, as managers of the competent Supervisory Offices, having ascertained the absence of the necessary subjective and objective requirements during the preliminary investigation, they expressed an opinion against the acquisition of control of Banca Antonveneta by Banca Popolare di Lodi, resisting to repeated and strong pressure from the top management of the Bank of Italy, determined to allow the operation in any case. Despite the negative opinion of the Supervisory Authority, the authorization was nevertheless granted, but shortly thereafter suspended and finally declared lapsed in the light of subsequent investigations conducted by the Bank of Italy itself, by Consob and by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office. On the appointment of Governors Draghi and Visco, Castaldi and Clemente subsequently held the position of Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit for Italy (UIF), established in 2008 for the purpose of preventing and combating money laundering and considered among the most efficient at an international level.
Leah Garofalo, Calabrian by birth and Milanese by adoption, he witnessed the Italian justice of the internal feuds between his family and that of his former partner Carlo Cosco, denouncing the ‘Ndrangheta in a context of very strong pressures and threats. In 2009 she is kidnapped, tortured and killed. Her remains will be found only 3 years later, in 2012 in a field near Monza. The court case for the death of Lea Garofalo, which also sees the important testimony of her daughter Denise (now under protection) against her father, ends in 2014 with the life sentence of Carlo Cosco, the brother of these Vito, Rosario Curcio and Massimo Sabatino. For Carmine Venturino, a penalty discount of 25 years for the collaboration provided in the discovery of the body. He collected the award representing her daughter under protection, the Free Association.