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Since yesterday the newspapers have returned to talk about the investigation on the Open Foundation, created to finance the political activity of Matteo Renzi and famous for having organized the Leopolda rallies, the annual appointments of his current when he was part of the PD. Yesterday, the Supreme Court estimated the resources of the financier Davide Serra and Marco Carrai, former member of the Board of Directors of Open, against the decree of search and seizure of documents and computers ordered by the Florence Prosecutor and executed by the financial police in 2019 And Matteo Renzi criticized the fact that the news was not reported by the media with the same attention that was given to the searches themselves.
The Cassation
Yesterday, the Supreme Court accepted the resources of businessman Marco Carrai and financier Davide Serra presented against the seizure of documents and computers as part of the investigation to the Open Foundation. Therefore, the provision confirming the records and issued by the Florence Review Court on December 19, 2019 was canceled. Carrai is charged with illegal party financing, along with former Open President Alberto Bianchi, who is also charged to influence trade. Serra, on the other hand, is not under investigation.
As for Marco Carrai, the newspapers write that the Florence Review court decision was canceled “with postponement for a new examination.” Instead, the annulment of the provision involving Serra was decided without postponement, as stated by Alessandro Pistochini, Serra’s lawyer: “We are very satisfied because the Court not only annulled without postponement the decision of the Florence review court, but It also declared the illegality of the embargo decree, ordering the restitution of the goods to the legitimate owners.
Up to this point
The investigation of the Public Ministry of Florence on the Foundation had begun in 2019 and involved, among others, the lawyer Alberto Bianchi, Matteo Renzi’s financier, president of Open and investigated for influence peddling and illegal party financing, and Marco Carrai, well-known Renzi’s friend and ally, under investigation for illegal party financing. The news of the investigation had reached the front pages of newspapers at the end of November, after the Florence prosecutor ordered searches in eleven cities in the offices of a dozen companies that had financed Open between 2012 and 2018 (year in which which was the Foundation closed).
The searches also involved people who were not investigated, who, however, would have funded the foundation. There were, for example, the highway group Gavio, the pharmaceutical company Menarini, the shipping company Moby and the financier Davide Serra. Carrai and Serra, among others, had filed an appeal against the kidnappings that, however, was not accepted by the Florence Review Court last January.
In the order that confirmed the seizure of the review court, it was stated: “The results of the investigative activity carried out highlight significant links between the professional services provided by the lawyer Bianchi and his collaborators and the financing of the Open Foundation.” According to the magistrates, Bianchi allegedly had suspicious relationships with several of these companies. For example, it was hypothesized that the Toto construction group had conducted “covert” money transfer operations to finance the foundation, by settling a dispute with Autostrade by Bianchi’s law firm. Ultimately, according to the magistrates, Bianchi’s work for Toto would have been a kind of cover to finance the foundation. In addition, “in the fulfillment of the professional order entrusted to the lawyer Bianchi by the Toto group” there was an “interference” by Carrai.
In the order confirming the seizure, the Magazine had also highlighted the role of Carrai, a partner of two Luxembourg companies that are connected to each other, one of which was financed by Italians, who in turn finance the Open. Therefore, some donors to the Renzian foundation were suspected of having funded the Carrai companies, only to transfer more money to Open. Therefore, the Court of Review concluded, the raids and seizures were legitimate as they were necessary to “rebuild the relationships of the suspects Carrai and Bianchi with the Open financiers.”
Another aspect of the investigation concerns what the Open foundation would have done with that money. For the review court, the Open Foundation had “acted, regardless of its institutional purpose, as an articulation of a party” (or at least part of it), for example paying the expenses of some parliamentarians and lending them credit and debit cards. Using a foundation to raise funds for use in political activity, rather than directly funding a party (which is often more complex and allows you to exert less control over money), is a legal technique used by almost all parties and by most people. Important political actors, but whose limits, that is, what the foundation can do with that money, remain quite uncertain.
The reasons with the Supreme Court accepted the appeal have not yet been published. It will take about thirty days.
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