Gambling addict won and lost, and for years he “borrowed” large sums of money from a representative.
Feldkirch The 61-year-old Italian is an exceptional person in many ways. He has eleven children, four criminal records in Germany and he repeatedly delayed the trial in Feldkirch. He has already been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in Baden-Württemberg for fraud. In Feldkirch he gets an additional penalty of another 15 months. However, he only has to serve five of them. The detention in Germany, he says, was terrible. He cries and reports that he was raped there. His defense attorney has no doubts about this story, after all injuries have been found that make it all seem credible. The man is tearful, almost hysterical, during the trial in Feldkirch. He tells of several suicide attempts, and his lawyer confirms that he could hardly have a reasonable conversation with his client without him breaking into tears.
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Easy come easy go
The Italian played for years, especially in Switzerland, because the rules are supposedly looser there. He wasn’t just unlucky. His defense attorney presented a payment confirmation, according to which the now 61-year-old once took home 948,000 Swiss francs from machines. He played in the casino in Konstanz and in Baden near Zurich, now and then Black Jack, but mainly on machines. In the casino he also met the Vorarlberg politician. This was also a regular casino customer. “For years, amounts wandered back and forth between the two players, how much my client owes the other is hard to tell,” says the lawyer. An amount of 170,000 euros is charged. Sometimes there are written confirmations of the debts.
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Borrowed three years of money
The former member of the state parliament lent the Italian money for three years, according to the defense apparently even after the complaint was reported. At least officially, things like money for setting up a company, costs for a flight, lawyer or vehicles were recorded as the “purpose of the loan”. The fraudster also allegedly wanted to buy a pizza oven and faked this purpose. The fact that some of the financial transactions go back twelve years does not necessarily make the reconstruction easier. The defense a little doubts that the victim actually believed in these loan purposes, rather it was a shuffling of amounts of money between two players, says at least the lawyer. The Italian has confessed, repented and is legally sentenced. The victim waives repayment. It is clear to him that everything else doesn’t make sense anyway. EC
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