[ad_1]
On Wednesday morning, the Guardia di Finanza arrested Giovanni Castellucci, former CEO of Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI), and two other executives, Michele Donferri Mitelli, former national head of maintenance at Autostrade, and Paolo Berti, former director of operations. House arrest was ordered for all three. Castellucci was Managing Director of Autostrade per l’Italia since 2005 and resigned in December 2018.
The investigation that led to the arrests began a year ago after the analysis of documents acquired during another investigation, that of the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa, which took place on August 14, 2018 and in which 43 people died. The investigation refers to the installation on the highway network of sound-absorbing panels, used to limit noise caused by traffic, considered at risk of detachment since 2017, but replaced only in February 2020.
– Read also: History and problems of the Morandi bridge
The detainees are indicted on charges of attack on transport security and fraud in public supply. According to a note from the Guardia di Finanza, during the investigation it was learned that the detainees had knowledge of “design flaws and underestimation of the action of the wind, as well as the use of some materials for anchoring to the ground that do not comply with European Certifications and low performance “and would not have wanted” to proceed with the adequate replacement and security works, avoiding this obligation with temporary measures that are not adequate and do not resolve. That is why fraud against the State has been unleashed “.
Based on the investigation of the sound-absorbing panels, the magistrates, through a series of interceptions, have found “against the company Autostrade per l’Italia and its directors a serious criminal conduct related to the business policy aimed at maximizing the benefits derived of the concession with the State, reducing and delaying the expenses necessary for the maintenance of the highway network entrusted to the concession: to the detriment of citizen security.
The examining magistrate of Genoa, Paola Faggioni, on the grounds of the house arrest defined Castellucci as “an unscrupulous person and unconcerned with respect for the rules: inspired by a strictly personalistic business logic to the detriment of public safety”.
– Read also: Buffaloes on the Morandi Bridge
In the investigation documents there are also some interceptions in which an explicit reference is made to the Morandi Bridge and its conditions before the collapse. On June 25, 2018, two months before the bridge collapse, Berti and Donferri have a conversation on WhatsApp about the Polcevera viaduct. Donferri wrote to Berti, referring to the bridge stays, that “the cables are now all corroded.” Berti responds: “Sti gallos, I’m leaving ASPI, the risk is great.” Three days after the collapse of the Morandi Berti bridge, he deleted the messages that, however, were found by the Guardia di Finanza on Donferri’s phone.
In addition to the investigation of the sound absorbing panels, and the main trend, that of the collapse of the Morandi bridge in which 71 people plus the ASPI company and the SPEA subsidiary are investigated and in which the accusations are of multiple homicide, wrongful death and attack to the citizens. security, there are two other investigations underway: that of the so-called “rigged reports”, that is, of the results of controls on other viaducts of the motorway network where the risks were concealed, and that of the tunnels, initiated after the collapse of part of the Bertè gallery vault on December 30, 2019, on the A26 Genova-Gravellona Toce, which led to the finding of risk situations in more than 200 rooms.
[ad_2]
