Bribes: Gdf stops Lara Comi – Lombardy

The Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Gdf in Milan, with colleagues from Busto Arsizio, arrested the former Euro MP of Lara Comi, the Tigros CEO ad Paolo Orrigoni, both under house arrest, and the general manager of Afol Metropolitana Giuseppe Zingale ( in jail). In a line of inquiry 'Mensa dei Poveri' the order was signed by the investigating magistrate Raffaella Mascarino and requested by the prosecutors Silvia Bonardi, Luigi Furno and Adriano Scudieri for accusations, in various ways, of corruption, illegal financing and fraud.

"Today I will say that I have never taken 17K I have never had consultations with Afol nor to companies related to me that do not exist … If they ask me why they say this I can say that it was you who advised them". So Lara Comi in a conversation intercepted while talking to her lawyer Bergamaschi, refers to 17 thousand euros that she would have obtained from Afol. The conversation of May 9th, after his name had emerged in the maxi investigation, is found in the interim order.

"Despite her young age, Lara Comi has shown in practice an uncommon experience in having recourse to the various, tried and tested criminal schemes aimed at providing a legal appearance to the payment of bribes, to the fraudulent removal of public resources and to the forfeiture of illicit financing" . It is written in the precautionary custody order that brought the former MEP to house arrest.

"From the examination of the circumstantial elements (…) the peculiar ability emerges that the suspect Comi has shown to have acquired in making the most of her network of knowledge in order to draw" from the public role "of which she was invested for expression of the popular will, the maximum advantage in economic terms and in terms of widening one's sphere of visibility ". The magistrate of Milan, Raffaella Mascarino, writes this in the arrest warrant for the former MEP and two others.

Interceptions in which Nino Caianiello, the alleged "puppeteer" of the bribe system, illegal financing, appointments and piloted contracts, also insulted her by giving her the "idiot" and then reports of suspects, including that of his former press officer, who pulled her in dance. There was already this and more about Lara Comi in the acts of the Milanese maxi inquiry 'Mensa dei povente' which today, with new developments also based precisely on the minutes of the "great maneuverer" who has been collaborating with PM for some time, led to the arrest of the now ex-MEP, in addition to that of the CEO of Tigros Paolo Orrigoni and the dg of Afol Giuseppe Zingale. "We come on the two things, one this idiot of Lara to what point are we (Lara Comi, ed) because I see her tonight, so I shampoo him," said Caianiello, intercepted on November 29, 2018, talking to Zingale who answered : "the 17 already liquidated, 21 I made the contract".

Gioacchino Caianiello, the former coordinator of FI of Varese, considered by the Milan prosecutor the 'puppeteer' of a system of bribes in Lombardy, during an interception on March 25, 2019, in the Berti restaurant in Milan, talking with Paolo Orrigoni, l 'from Tigros to house arrest from today, tells him that "Tatarella and Bestetti (national coordinator of FI Giovani, not investigated, ed) are his' Milanese godchildren' and have already 'learned' from him" and "have already passed the father ". This is what is read in the order of the investigating judge.

The operation is a new trend in the maxi investigation which on May 7 led to 43 precautionary measures executed, among others, against the former Forza Italia coordinator in Varese Nino Caianiello, the 'blue' councilor Fabio Altitonante and the then candidate for the European Championships and city councilor at high altitude FI Pietro Tatarella. It was precisely the declarations made at the pm of Caianiello, the alleged "puppeteer" of the system and questioned many times in recent months, to confirm an accusatory picture already emerged from the first stories of entrepreneurs and suspects in the Prosecutor's office after the blitz. Lara Comi is responsible for three events. The first concerns two consultancy contracts received by his company, Premium Consulting Srl, based in Pietra Ligure (Savona), by Afol and, in particular, by the dg Zingale, "on the promise of relegation of a share to them Caianiello e Zingale ", as reported in the documents deposited in the main tranche. Circumstance recorded by Maria Teresa Bergamaschi, lawyer and close associate of the former MEP in an interrogation on May 14: "On December 15, 2018 I received a message from Lara Comi (…) she wrote to me 'Zingale will want a Christmas present ' ". And he added: "He told me of the need to pay Zingale a sum of 10 thousand euros in view of the extension of the office." The exponent of FI is also accused of having received an illegal loan of 31 thousand euros from the Brescia industrial owner of the Omr holding and president of Confindustria Lombardia, Marco Bonometti. The payment would have been made in view of the last European elections and for a consultancy based on a thesis downloadable from the web entitled "Made in Italy: a brand to be valued and internationalized to increase the competitiveness of small coffee roasting companies" . In the third episode (aggravated fraud in the European Parliament) journalist Andrea Aliverti is also involved, who worked with Comi as press officer, for a fee of one thousand euros a month, reimbursed by the European Parliament. Asked by the prosecutors, he said he had received an increase of three thousand euros, with the obligation to return two thousand to FI to pay the expenses of the site that Comi did not pay. Finally, entrepreneur Pietro Tonetti spoke of Orrigoni, a former candidate for mayor of Varese. He said that, in agreement with him, Orrigoni would have paid the advance of 50 thousand euros of the alleged bribe, disguised as an engineering firm, to obtain the variant of intended use of a land in Gallarate on which open a new Tigros store.