The former president of the Consulta, Antonio Baldassarre, was sentenced to 3 years in prison at the bis appeal process in relation to the failed takeover of Alitalia in 2007. The Court of Appeal of Rome instead acquitted, for not having committed the crime, the former president of Autostrade, Giancarlo Elia Valori. The charge against them was of market manipulation. For Baldassarre, the judges also established a fine of 400 thousand euros. Two and a half years sentences also for Claudio Prati and Danilo Dini, former consultants of a financial company linked to Valori.
In the first instance, in 2013, Baldassarre and Valori had been sentenced to 2 years: according to the accusation, “the false appearance of the existence of a group of investors interested in buying the national airline” had been created. Verdict then overturned in 2016 on appeal where they were acquitted with the formula “because the fact does not exist”. Two years later, in 2018, however, the decision of the Supreme Court arrived which ordered the second appeal process, which ended today.
The judges also established a compensation of 70 thousand euros in favor of Consob, the civil party in the trial, whose legal costs will be paid by the convicts.
“We are literally stunned by a verdict of this type. We will read the reasons and surely, convinced of the fact that the fact does not exist, we will appeal to the Supreme Court,” said the defender of Antonio Baldassarre, the lawyer Marco Franco.
“We express great satisfaction for the acquittal of Elia Valori, who have always been convinced of his total extraneousness to this affair – said the lawyer Giandomenico Caiazza, defender of the former president of Autostrade – On the other hand, Valori is a person who has gone through the economic life of this country without censorship. This decision is in harmony with all its public life “.
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