Money laundering and illegal party financing. These are the crime hypotheses on which the Milan prosecutor’s office is working which, as early as June 2020, opened a file to verify whether the nascent 5 Star Movement, in 2010, received three and a half million Venezuelan “black funds”. And now he aims to question Hugo El Pollo Carvajal, the former head of the Venezuelan secret service arrested in Spain on a mandate from the United States, who has already confirmed to the Spanish judge the alleged illicit financing of Venezuela to various political movements such as Podemos in Spain and the 5 Stars in Italy.
Even before the news was reported by various Spanish newspapers, it was Marcos Garcìa Rey, the ABC journalist who last year named El Pollo, who have been investigating in absolute silence for over a year. caused the scandal to explode by publishing an unpublished document of the Venezuelan secret services. According to the deed, Nicolas Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s foreign minister at the time, had authorized the delivery, through the Venezuelan consul in Milan, Gian Carlo Di Martino, of a briefcase loaded with 3.5 million euros. to the late Gianroberto Casaleggio, the «promoter of a revolutionary and anti-capitalist left movement in the Italian Republic».
Rey was sued for defamation by Davide Casaleggio, who accuses him of having tarnished the name of his father, founder of the 5 Star Movement. Assisted by the lawyers Luigi Isolabella and Maria Beatrice Lanzavecchia, he was questioned a few weeks ago. He did not reveal the name of the source who gave him that document, but he lined up all the checks he did before publishing it. And, among the people and the authorities heard, there would be El Pollo, with whom Rey would always remain in contact.
A few days later, Spanish newspapers published the revelations of the former Venezuelan intelligence director, who will be extradited to the United States. But, from what emerges, already on Monday a European investigation order (OIE) would have arrived to the Spanish authorities, a sort of letter rogatory, which bears the signatures of the deputy prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli and the prosecutor Cristiana Roveda. An act that reveals the allegations hypothesized in Italy: money laundering and illegal financing of the party. Also because it is not said, and from what is known El Pollo would not have excluded it, that after 2010 (for which part of the charges would already be prescribed) there were no other alleged illegal loans on the Venezuela – 5 Star axis. The most absolute confidentiality applies to the investigation and the investigation order in the prosecutor’s office, no one confirms or denies it. But now it is clear that the magistrates’ goal is to question El Pollo before his extradition to the US. And also look in the documentation that claims to have corroboration of the allegations. The investigations entrusted to the Gdf Economic and Financial Police Unit aim to ascertain the alleged financing, to understand the role of the consul Di Martino and any other intermediaries intervened, who would have received the 3.5 million euros in Italy in addition to the deceased Casaleggio and for what purpose they were used. Especially if there are other and more recent episodes to investigate.