A Milan judge on Friday sent Tourism
Minister Daniela Santanchè to trial for alleged false accounting
at her former publishing company Visibilia.
The 63-year-old minister, who resigned from her roles in
Visibilia, a publishing and advertising agency that is now in
administration, before she became minister in 2022, has denied
all wrongdoing.
She was among 17 people indicted on Friday over alleged false
corporate communications, including her partner Dimitri Kunz and
her sister Fiorella Garnero.
"It's a decision that we expected, but which still leaves a bad
taste in our mouth," said Santanche's defence lawyer Nicolo
Pelanda.
"A few days ago we had submitted to the judge the results of a
former case which had substantially undermined one of the
assumptions today presented by the Prosecutor's Office.
"The prosecutors say that the business plans contained
excessively optimistic forecasts and so there was a need to
devalue.
"But in the former proceedings the Milan finance police and
prosecutors argued, instead, that the business plans had
conservative forecasts and for this reason they had asked for
them to be shelved".
Prosecutors alleged that the balance sheets were manipulated
between 2016 and 2022 to hide millions of euros of losses and
enable the company to stay in business.
The trial, which will begin in March, may not be the only one
that will stem from alleged wrongdoing related to the minister's
business activities.
Santanche, a lawmaker in Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, has survived a no confidence
motion in the Senate over her former business allegedly failing
to pay suppliers and dismissing workers without giving them
redundancy payments and allegedly improperly receiving COVID
aid, prompting calls for her to quit.
She has said she is innocent and has vowed to clear her name.
The opposition has called for her to resign.
Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was
recently acquitted over the alleged 'abduction' of migrants in
2019, while former culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned
in a case involving his lover last year.
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