FILE PHOTO: Italian Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana puts on a protective mask when he announces on Facebook that he was quarantined after one of his aides tested positive for coronavirus, in this still image taken from a social media video. in Milan, Italy, February 26, 2020. Attilio Fontana Facebook Live / REUTERS TV via REUTERS / File Photo
MILAN (Reuters) – The governor of Lombardy, the Italian region most affected by the coronavirus, denied acting on Saturday after he was placed under investigation on suspicion of fraud over the supply of medical equipment from a company owned by his brother-in-law.
The magistrates are investigating Attilio Fontana, 68, a member of the right-wing League party, for a payment of 250,000 euros to the company, in which Fontana’s wife has a 10% stake, confirmed the lawyer for Fontana, Jacopo Pensa.
Pensa told reporters that Fontana denied having acted badly.
The Lombardy region ordered the company 75,000 surgical gowns and 7,000 disinfection kits in a contract worth approximately 500,000 in April. Later, the company decided to donate a first batch of 50,000 dresses instead of taking money for them.
Fontana then ordered a bank transfer of 250,000 euros from his own private account in Switzerland to his brother-in-law. The payment was blocked by one of the banks, which notified the financial police.
Pensa said Fontana wanted to compensate his brother-in-law for the loss of earnings he suffered by converting the purchase to a donation.
League leader Matteo Salvini, a former interior minister, defended Fontana, saying the magistrates were politically motivated. The opposition parties asked Fontana to resign.
About half of Italy’s 35,000 deaths from the coronavirus have been in Lombardy, the industrial and financial heart of northern Italy.
Report by Philip Pullella; Editing by Peter Graff
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