Bio-on in the storm, an arrested manager and 150 million seized from the bioplastics jewelery company

BOLOGNA – Three managers in trouble (one arrested and the other two subjected to interdictory measures), on charges of false accounting and market manipulation, dozens of searches in Emilia Romagna, Lazio and Lombardy and assets for 150 million euros under kidnapping.It is a real tsunami that the "Bio-on", a publicly traded company based in Bologna, has invested this morning at dawn. The operation "Plastic Bubbles" of the Provincial Headquarters of the Guardia di Finanza who acted on the impulse of the Bologna prosecutor's office started in the past few months, after the complaint by the Quintessential fund based in New York.
The beginning of the summer of Bio-on fire is dated July 24th. That day the American fund of Gabriele Grego, Quintessential Capital Management, which in the past had already targeted and sunk other listed companies, published a dossier accusing the company of being "a new Parmalat in Bologna", a "castle of cards »intended« to total collapse », a« scheme devised by management to enrich itself on the shoulders of shareholders ».A merciless thrust, which Bio-on and its founder Marco Astorri replied, filing a complaint with the carabinieri and defending the company's operations, which ended 2018 with revenues of 51 million, almost quintupled compared to 11 million in 2017.

Bio-on was considered a kind of star on the Aim market, the small and medium-sized sector of the Italian Stock Exchange. In his Quintessential dossier, however, he questioned his real productive capacity, which declares 100 employees in Bologna and has just inaugurated a factory in Castel San Pietro.

The American fund pointed to the potential of its biodegradable plastic processing, on the regularity of the balance sheets. According to Quntessential, the fact that most of the revenues came from contracts with companies controlled by Bio-on itself represented a smoky hub. "They are false to manipulate the market, we have already denounced and will answer again", it was the Astorri hot replication.

Within a few days, however, the charges had brought down the company's stock market value. From the billion in capitalization and from the 55 euros per share, the stock had fallen to 16-17 euros, burning in value over 24 million over the Stock Exchange.

With the investigation, the company's tops tremble and even a hundred employees Bologna, Bentivoglio, Minerbio and Castel San Pietro tremble.