Giovanni Toti arrests: “We are very calm”. The accusation: “Corruption and acts contrary to official duties”

Giovanni Toti is under house arrest as part of an investigation conducted by the Genoese DDA and the Guardia di Finanza, in these minutes he is in the barracks of the Guardia di Finanza in Lungomare Canepa, in Genoa, together with his lawyer Stefano Savi.

“The president of the Liguria Region has been arrested on charges of corruption for the exercise of his office and for acts contrary to official duties,” said the chief prosecutor of Genoa Nicola Piacente. Intercepted by reporters who asked him for a comment on the legal storm,the governor replied: “We are very calm.”

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of La Spezia has issueda dozen precautionary detention orders against the head of Governor Toti’s cabinet, Matteo Cozzani, for what could be considered the ‘mother’ investigation that started, with the transmission of the acts, the Genoese investigation that led to the governor’s house arrest, the arrest of the former president of the port authority Signorini and Cozzani himself. The ordinances were carried out by the Gdf of La Spezia. A preventive seizure decree has also been issued for crimes against the public administration, including corruption and disturbed freedom of enchantment.

The order for the application of precautionary measures (coercive and interdictory), personal and real, was issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Genoa at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed on 27 December. The ordinances also concern Paolo Emilio Signorini, former president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea and current CEO of Iren, entrepreneurs Aldo and Roberto Spinelli, entrepreneur Mauro Vianello, and board member of Esselunga Spa, Francesco Moncada. Aldo Spinelli’s son, Roberto, has also been temporarily banned from exercising his business and professional activity, accused of corruption against the president of the Liguria Region.

Against Paolo Emilio Signorini, Aldo Spinelli and Roberto Spinelli, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure of financial resources and assets for a total amount of over 570 thousand euros, believed to be profits from the alleged corruption crimes.

The other addressees of the order are Arturo Angelo Testa and Italo Maurizio Testa and Venanzio Maurici. Signorini, who is under investigation for corruption in the exercise of his office and for acts contrary to official duties, is the recipient of a measure of “pre-trial detention in prison” while Toti has been placed under house arrest for the same crimes.

Toti’s lawyer: “The president is serene and convinced that he can explain”

“At the moment, President Toti is serene and convinced that he can explain everything. The Region will continue to work even in his absence. These are all facts that we can explain because they fall within the scope of legitimate administrative activity.” This was stated by the governor’s lawyer while speaking to reporters in the morning. “There is no talk of resignation,” Savi stressed. It pauses from the function and then we’ll see what happens. The process is still to be done. We see the acts, we read them and we try to understand how to build the defensive elements in the best possible way. The president is serene and calm. He wants to go through the process by explaining everything in detail.”

Iren activates business continuity procedures

Iren makes it known that it has “learned this morning from the press of the application of an order of precautionary measures against the CEO Paolo Signorini ordered by the judicial authority of Genoa”. For Signorini, accused of corruption and taken to prison, the alleged crimes reported in the press release of the Genoa Public Prosecutor’s Office, “refer to his previous role as president of the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea and would therefore not concern Iren,” the utility recalls. Which has “already activated the necessary procedures to immediately ensure full business continuity,” it said in a note.