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Paolo and Vittorio Biondani Malagutti
A mysterious list. With 552 "big names". They are all well-known industrialists and professionals in the north-east. Who have cheated the Italian Treasury. With a Swiss lawyer. Finished in San Vittore
Kerrville is a town in Texas. A few houses, few people and few roads in a desolate landscape. We must start from here, from the American West, to tell a story of ill repute very Italian. There are hundreds of millions of euro in tax and escape from a swarm of diverse characters: a Swiss lawyer specializing in offshore companies, an accountant with frequent visits of high rim and a platoon of celebrity entrepreneurs looking for a shortcut to save on taxes . Need an address out of the way to park your money? Here Kerville, Texas, home to the financial group WMK, safe organization.
For years the system worked to perfection: absolute confidentiality and piles of money for everyone. Then, the unexpected. In the first weekend in February, enters the Guardia di Finanza. With an operation prepared for months, the team of police of yellow flames in Milan puts his hands on a list of over 500 names, to be exact 552. There are entrepreneurs and companies, complete with a bank account, shell companies and an endless series of invoices issued by Italy to foreign countries. Money leaving the Peninsula and land in tax havens. For the prosecutor in Milan, is a mine of information of extraordinary value.

The list of the 552 was kept in a file on the laptop Fabrizio Pessina Swiss lawyer, born in 1946. A long-time professional based in Chiasso, a few meters across the border. Landed at Malpensa airport on his return from a brief holiday in Marbella, Pessina was arrested on charges of money laundering. Involved in the investigation and its major customer, the Milanese businessman Giuseppe Grossi. But the analysis of the data stored on that computer displays for years to investigators that Grossi's really just a name among many. In three decades of honorable service Swiss lawyer specializing in tax havens has built a network of contacts, much branched. They refer to him a large number of industrialists and professionals, mostly concentrated in the Northeast, in the end a high density of small and medium-sized companies ranging from Brescia to Treviso. Customers like the group Greggio, silver label based in the province of Padua. Or Verona Cordioli family, which produces and processes aluminum, zinc and copper. And yet, still by way of example, the Brescia Innocent Adherents. Dozens of people, mostly little known to the general public, but, overall, can move hundreds of millions of euro.
the main reference Pessina are obviously banking giant Credit Swiss, starting dall'Ubs. In Italy, however, in many transactions recorded in the list of Chiasso lawyer is quoted as Bank of Mb, a small institution recently born in Milan on the initiative of a few dozen entrepreneurs from the second row. Among the promoters of a historical name stands out as national finance Giuseppe Garofano, the manager, president The time of the Ferruzzi Montedison, has always been close to Opus Dei. Pessina are the first customers of the bank's shareholders. And as the administrator of Mb, from 2003 until March 2006, check the accountant Siro Zanoni, longtime collaborator of the same Pessina.


But it is not just a matter of banks. For at least ten years, the attorney is under arrest Chiasso hours going steady with Mario Merello, a professional with great success, judging from personal assets. Residence in St. Moritz, but also at home in Monaco, Merello last summer launched its new 50-meter yacht named Marcel in honor of his wife, singer Marcella Bella. His treasure, the real one, however, is an enormous wealth of contacts, some very high level, families and entrepreneurs in managing the funds. Pessina's partner for years in the sailing world of entertainment, including VIP perceived or real popular on social occasions with his wife Marcella. In Milan, however, the most active Merello is well established within the stock market and high finance. Long been acknowledged, for example, the family Ligresti. It is said that he was instructed by Silvano Pontello, the banker, who died in 2002, which in turn increased the school bankrupt Michele Sindona and later rose to the top of Banca Antonveneta. Ancient times, those. Merello since then has come a long way, dancing with great skill and friendship between capital Lugano, Milan and Monaco. In a career so lucky to be recorded only one accident. In 1998 Sec Americans pinched by a history of insider trading (abuse of confidential information in stock) on Wall Street. Everything was closed with a simple fine. A small thing for a guy like Merello, who by now was traveling at full speed. In fact, a few years time, here at the wheel of WMK of Texas. This holding U.S. pulls the strings of a more complex structure. There is a WMK based in Luxembourg, which in turn has opened an office in Lugano. At the Luxembourg subsidiary, according to the latest published financial statements (dated 2007), is part of a collection of about 300 million euro. Invested, as stated in the documentation Journal, unspecified "securities."
Now, after the arrest of Pessina and accounting, all the affairs of the group WMK will be sieved by the Guardia di Finanza, such as those of its partners Merello. The criminal investigation of the Prosecutor of Milan, entrusted to Pedio pm Laura and Gaetano Ruta, is just the first chapter, but promises surprises sensational. The only customer Pessina that is already possible to draw conclusions is precisely Grossi, who with his Green Holding SpA has managed the environmental remediation of Montecity, the Milan area where the property developer Luigi Zunino is building the new district of Santa Giulia. The Swiss lawyer was arrested on charges of having recycled 14 million and a half € created by inflating its costs of that remediation. But now the documents seized in the raids have already pushed up the funds to 25 million blacks. And in the last interrogation in prison, Pessina said he had paid that money on a network of foreign accounts registered to family members, directors and nominees of the same Grossi, at this point is itself under investigation for tax fraud.

But now the prosecutor's investigation go far beyond the case Grossi. Targeted by the Guardia di Finanza is the long list of clients and society in the discovery of computer Pessina. This list of 552 names can be compared, as an order of magnitude, the now famous list of the Italians with the account in Vaduz. With some important differences. The list of Vaduz, released last March by the leaders of the Inland Revenue (those appointed by the Prodi government and later removed), was purchased by paying an unnamed German intelligence official who, in 2002, had secretly copied the archives Liechtenstein bank's computer where she worked. Those foreign deposits, therefore, were dated and in many cases had already been regularized using the two tax shields launched between 2001 and 2003 by Minister Tremonti. The computer Pessina, however, contains very recent data, updated to Friday, January 31, 2009, indeed probably the weekend arrest. The list of Vaduz, also contained 390 names, almost all of the Centre-North but they were mostly gathered in family groups or corporate, which accounted for only 157 positions in banking: the total deposits amounted to 1 billion and 337 million euro. Guests of the Swiss trustee who is now in San Vittore are concentrated in Lombardy and Veneto. Their professional identikit are equivalent to those of subjects appeared in the list of Vaduz. But this time the number seems calculated to default. As shown in 'The Express', in fact, many of the 552 names is more of a foreign account and display more than one company. Some of the names and surnames coincide with family of bankers of standing, assault financiers, business executives Lombard entrepreneurs especially from North-East but any conclusion is premature: the investigations are the first few bars and police are still working to rebuild the actual identity of customers, avoiding mistakes or instances of the same name.


transactions recorded in the computer are thousands of Pessina. There are credits recorded since 1996. For other customers the information covers only the most recent years. But the most interesting perhaps is another: in that laptop also appear the names of other trustees. Which could then point to further sub-pyramids and pyramids of Italian clients with accounts abroad. In this context, is the highest level of personal and professional contacts to Merello, the member Strong Pessina, to suggest to develop excellent. The external accounts to which the Milan prosecutor's office has denied the charges of tax fraud are made out to offshore companies of the various tax havens, from Madeira to Delaware, however, that in fact only serve to manage deposits in Swiss banks. The arrest of Pessina has created great embarrassment to the federal government, already shaken by the recent international controversy over bank secrecy. Pessina has been for two years, from 1991 to 1993, chairman of the Bar of the Canton Ticino. And in San Vittore, has just received the official visit by a diplomat: the Swiss consul.
(March 26, 2009)



Montecity Survey, For the entrepreneur victim
gip di Milano Fabrizio D'Arcangelo who issued an order of remand in prison for the lawyer Fabrizio Pessina, Giuseppe Anastasi and Paul Pasqualetto on charges of money laundering, "the over-invoicing of the costs of remediation" Project Montecity-Santa Giulia, in the 'hinterland of Milan, "is proven by numerous consulting contracts, brokering, obtaining customers, apparently functional operations of transport, storage and disposal of waste generated within the project Montecity-Santa Giulia, which provide for the payment, did take place, unintended benefits. " The three people meet recycling arrested "without preconditions competitions in the crimes of embezzlement and fraud committed against the company 'in a pool of temporary undertakings entrusted with the project Montecity Spa", which is headed by entrepreneur Luigi Zunino, drainage, appointments, 'area Rogoredo-Santa Giulia. The investigation had resulted from a request for assistance of the 'German court that had investigated six German nationals in relation to disposal of hazardous waste from, inter alia, by' ex-industrial area Montecity Rogoredo. (AGI)