In the civil case, the Milan court ruled against the Neapolitan shipowner. The holding company: “Ready to appeal, we have confidence in the judges”
MILAN. In the civil dispute between Tirrenia in extraordinary administration and the Onorato group, born from the purchase and sale of the fleet, the court of Milan agrees with the commissioners. In fact, today the judge Amina Simonetti accepted their request and authorized Tirrenia to proceed with the conservation seizure of the movable and immovable assets of Onorato Armatori for an amount of 20 million euros. The precautionary appeal was discussed on November 5 as part of the lawsuit launched last June – the first hearing is on January 18, 2022 – against the Vincenzo Onorato holding company that controls Moby and Cin to protect the credit claimed against. of the same cin for the non-payment of the residual price, the last installment, of the ships purchased from the company under extraordinary administration.
In the precautionary appeal it is argued, among other things, that not only “Onorato Armatori would not have sufficient capitalization” to pay off the debt, but also speaks of “dispersion of the corporate assets in pharaonic donations in favor of the shareholder Vincenzo Onorato, including loans, advances on emoluments or preferential expenses “such as the purchase by Moby of the property in Piazza San Babila for 7.6 million euros for forestry use.
As can be seen from the provision filed this morning 18 November, against which the counterparty has already announced a complaint, the thesis of the Tirrenia lawyers, Professor Pier Filippo Giuggioli and the lawyer Adriano Curti, was accepted and the responsibility of the holding company was recognized. Onorato, who “has not deposited financial statements” since 2017, for having drained resources of Cin for over 210 million so as to prevent the latter from repaying the price of 180 million for the sale of the shipping company branch to the extraordinary administration. Furthermore, according to the judge, “the company that has not approved the financial statements for years, so that it does not provide updated information on its equity and financial situation and this is to the detriment of its creditors above all and this very serious fact, all the more so if the company has such relevance and is placed at the top of a Group in crisis it already integrates within itself the periculum envisaged ”by Tirrenia of not seeing the credit claimed protected.
«The seizure order will be the subject of a complaint before the Court of Milan, in whose work the Onorato Group – according to the Neapolitan shipowner’s holding company – has full confidence. In the meantime, the Onorato Group and its consultants will continue the negotiations that have already begun with Tirrenia in the hope that the Ministry of Economic Development will finally give an answer to the numerous reminders received from the Company and the social partners ». In parallel, due to the collapse of the maritime transport group, the Milan prosecutor Roberto Fontana has opened a fraudulent bankruptcy investigation in which Vincenzo Onorato and his son Achille are being investigated. (HANDLE).