The president of Lombardy Attilio Fontana was acquitted “because the fact does not exist” with four other people from the accusation of fraud in public supplies for the case of the award in April 2020 by the Region of a supply, then transformed into a donation , from about half a million euros of 75 thousand gowns and other dpi to Dama, the company of his brother-in-law Andrea Dini. This was decided by the gup of Milan Chiara Valori. Fonatana, speaking on the phone with his lawyers about her, the lawyers Jacopo Pensa and Federico Papa, said he was “happy and moved” by the acquittal.
The other defendants acquitted
The judge decided that a trial is not necessary even for Dini himself, for Filippo Bongiovanni and Carmen Schweigl, respectively former CEOs and manager of Aria, regional purchasing center, and for Pier Attilio Superti, deputy secretary general of the Region.
The reconstruction of the accusation
According to the accusation, represented by the deputy prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli and by the prosecutors Paolo Filippini and Carlo Scalas, based on the contract of 16 April 2020, Dama, which owns the Paul & Shark brand, should have supplied 75 thousand gowns and another 7 thousand sets of dpi for an amount of 513 thousand euros. When the conflict of interest emerged (Fontana’s wife, Roberta Dini, had 10% of Dama), the suspects, according to the prosecutors, would have tried “to simulate the existence” from the beginning “of a donation contract” to at least for the 50 thousand gowns already delivered and the remaining part, however, 25 thousand “pieces”, never reached Aria. Hence the accusation of fraud in public supplies. Accusation that was canceled by the decision of the gup.
No offense, neither criminal nor civil, have always supported the defenders of the governor but a supply that has been transformed into a donation and which has allowed the Region “to save 513 thousand euros”. There has never been, explained the defense, “any tender, but an urgent offer accepted as a paid supply” of devices which “it was then decided to donate”. For the prosecution, however, the governor, “after agreement with Dini” decided to “pay, in a personal capacity, in favor of Dama the price” of the gowns, with the attempt to make a transfer of 250 thousand euros for the brother-in-law from a Swiss account. And for the remaining 25 thousand gowns, according to the prosecutors, Bongiovanni was intervened “to give up the residual services” to contain the “economic damage” to Dama. Hypotheses all fallen.
The other investigations closed
On a Swiss account, the prosecutors also opened an independent investigation for forgery in voluntary disclosure and self-laundering filed in February, as well as another investigation for abuse of office on Fontana for the appointment of a former colleague of his law firm was filed in the past. .