In five years, from 2018 to 2023, he allegedly pocketed 112 thousand euros by subtracting them from the coffers of the “Guido Galli” high school in via Gavazzeni where he was acting director of the General Administrative Services. The man, 54 years old and resident in the city, with no criminal record, ended up under house arrest on Monday 14 October accused of embezzlement of public financial resources.
The investigations of the economic-financial police unit of the Finance Police of Bergamo, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Silvia Marchina, they started in 2023 following an anonymous complaint: the investigations began in September, a month after the DSGA had requested and obtained the transfer to another institution (first in Alzano and then in Seriate, where he still works). The money, which the financiers are trying to recover from his assets and current accounts thanks to the equivalent seizure decree ordered by the investigating judge, would have been used to pay rent, bills, personal expenses for himself and his closest family members.
The investigations
The modus operandi, reconstructed by the financiers who in the last year have sifted through the hotel institute’s accounts and examined the administrative-accounting documentation, consisted in the vast majority of cases in duplicate payment orders for school bills and suppliers: taking advantage of the position of manager of the administrative staff, the DSGA paid the former regularly, then prepared other identical mandates indicating as the IBAN that of his or his family members’ current account. The man also used reasons with false references to invoices and suppliers (for example for energy services). The Fiamme Gialle checked around 70 suspicious payment orders, identifying, among the IBAN codes, also those relating to current accounts of personal creditors of the DSGA. Furthermore, they also found payment orders issued directly in their favor and without justification, because they were taken from funds reserved for teachers for new project activities or investments in student training. But the 54-year-old would not be satisfied: of the 112 thousand euros stolen from the school coffers that are being contested against him, around 10 thousand would be for the students’ snacks.
«At the beginning of September 2023 the Financial Police showed up at the school two or three times, then they came a few more times later, but they never told us the reason for their investigations»
«All hotel institutes produce pizza which is sold during the break – explains the head teacher of the “Galli”, Brizio Campanelli -. The janitor goes to each classroom to take orders and collect money from students, which he then delivers to the DSGA. And the manager periodically takes them to the bank: I’m talking about bags of cash and coins. Two years ago we introduced Pos or the possibility of paying with a debit card, but previously payments were only made in cash.” Part of that money, according to the charges, the 54-year-old he would have paid them into his bank account.
“It’s a story that obviously makes me very sad because the head teacher is the one who supervises and as a controller I should have realized it, but these were things that were difficult to verify”
The judge, also due to the risk of repeating the crime, now having a similar role in another school, ordered the arrest of the DSGA with house arrest. Monday 14 October, when the financiers knocked on his door, he showed some surprise. The director will be questioned on Tuesday 15 or Wednesday 16 October by judge Raffaella Mascarino, to whom he will be able to provide his version of events.
“Never had any suspicions”
«At the beginning of September 2023 the Financial Police showed up at the school two or three times – confirms Campanelli – then they came other times later, but they never told us the reason for their investigations. They asked us for the documentation, the budget, the list of invoices and the school’s current account, but we didn’t think it was for something like this. What I learned I read on newspaper websites. We never had any suspicions also because the school budget is done on ministerial software which monitors expenses in real time. There are also auditors who certify the financial statements. Even now that I have learned of his modus operandi, I honestly don’t know how I would have noticed, the current account numbers and IBANs are not visible in the reporting flows. It’s a story that obviously saddens me a lot because the head teacher is the one who supervises and as a controller I should have realized this, but these were things that were difficult to verify. The mandates to the suppliers were regular, we hoteliers make a lot of food purchases, we normally spend 80-90 thousand euros a year and all the operations are tracked. Even if I looked in the accounting and saw that the supplier’s payment was made to a certain IBAN, how would I know who it corresponds to? Among other things, the DSGA in question doesn’t seem to me to have economic problems. It’s something that really amazed us.”
