Petrobras case, judges acquit the Rocca brothers: “The trial should not have started in Milan”

MILAN. Acquitted of international corruption charges in Brazil because the trial did not have to be instituted in Milan. Thus, with a sentence of not having to proceed issued by the seventh criminal section of the Court, the brothers Gian Felice and Paolo Rocca together with their cousin Roberto Bonatti were exonerated of the accusation of having finalized a “corruptive agreement” to favor, between 2009 and 2013, Confab Industrial Sa (controlled by the Luxembourg holding San Faustin through Tenaris owned by the Rocca brothers) to win contracts in the carioca state.

With the formula “the criminal action should not have started due to lack of Italian jurisdiction”, pending the explanation of the reasons for the decision, the Malatesta-Fiorentini-Clemente judges did not enter into the merits of the matter. At the center of the accusation brought forward by the prosecutor Donata Costa, now under the antipode European prosecutor, the hypothesized bribe equal to 0.5 percent for each of the 22 pipe supply contracts worth over three billion Real Brazilians (over 1.4 billion euros) obtained by Confab Industrial SA. A € 6.6 million stick paid by Hector Alberto Zabaleta, then a local Uruguayan manager of Techint, to Renato Duque, the then director of services of the Brazilian company Petrobras. Money – according to the findings of the Guardia di Finanza – from current accounts in the name of San Faustin Lugano, fed through the profits produced by San Faustin and other subsidiaries. A reconstruction that for the representative of the prosecution must have cost the brothers Rocca and Bonatti, directors and shareholders of the holding company based in Luxembourg, a sentence of 4 and a half years of imprisonment.

It was the same defenses, with the lawyers Marco Calleri, Francesco Mucciarelli, Andrea Rossetti, to plead the question of Italian jurisdiction for facts presumably all committed abroad between South America and the Grand Duchy and Switzerland. In the first instance, however, they had asked for the acquittal with full formula, arguing the absence of evidence, such as documents and testimonies, which demonstrated the awareness of the top management of San Faustin and Techint of the payment of bribes.

“With satisfaction we welcome the sentence pronounced today against Roberto Bonatti, Gianfelice Rocca, Paolo Rocca and the San Faustin company regarding alleged corruption episodes, in the years 2009-2013, which would concern the Brazilian company Confab and some officials of Petrobrás The company wrote in a note. «Since the beginning of the investigation – we read again – we had affirmed the absolute correctness of the company’s behavior and the extraneousness of the disputed facts of the board members and the lack of jurisdiction. At the end of the trial, the Court gave us notice ».