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30 May 2014The Guardia di Finanza of Rome has seized the "Salaria sport village" sports center owned by the entrepreneur Diego Anemone and the 9 companies that manage the activities within it. The seizure has a total value of approximately € 200 million and was ordered by the Rome prosecutor in the context of investigations on contracts for major events.A "procurement clique" which, claims the prosecution, has piloted some of the major contracts in recent years: from the 2009 Swimming World Championships to the G8 summit on the island of La Maddalena, up to the Celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy .
The investigation, in which Angelo Balducci was also involved, had already led to the seizure of Diego Anemone's properties in 2012 for over 32 million.
Restoration of the center with the money of the piloted contracts
According to the investigations of the Tax Police, the luxury seized center "was
renovated and enlarged with money received in the coffers of the Anemone companies following the pilot award of the public contracts managed by the structures managed by Angelo Balducci ", former administrator of the Public Works of Lazio and former President of the Superior Council of Public Works.
In detail, the company Salaria Sport Village srl has benefited, according to the investigations of the Tax Police, of over 30 million euros obtained by the companies of the Anemone group thanks to the method implemented precisely by the "clique", ie the sharing of public contracts in exchange for favors . These funds confirmed the Guardia di Finanza were used to build and acquire the maxi sports center by Anemone.
Anemone-Balducci
partnership The Anemone-Balducci partnership was born in 2004: according to the financiers, while the entrepreneur Anemone saw Balducci assign large contracts in exchange for bribes, the two had embarked on a common entrepreneurial initiative with the Società Sportiva Romana and Salaria Sport Village in which the brothers Diego and Daniele Anemone and Lorenzo and Filippo Balducci, sons of Angelo, appeared as partners, albeit shielded through trust companies.
450 million from 1999 to 2009
The Guardia di Finanza has ascertained that following the pilot awarding of public contracts between 1999 and 2009, anemone companies have reached the pockets of "huge proceeds quantified at around 450 million, subject to prudent transactions over time of reinvestment, which allowed the entrepreneur of the "clique" to acquire, restructure and expand the largest sports center in the capital ".
The administrator "No seal, we are open"
"We have taken note of the seizure notified today by the Guardia di Finanza. In essence it is a duplication of the seizures already underway, so much so that the same judicial administrators previously appointed have been appointed by the Court of Rome ". These are the words of the administrator of the sports center Stefano Morandi who clarifies "the seal has not been affixed". The center's activity, he says, continues, there has been no interruption.
Seizure of 2009
Some structures of the "Salaria Sport Village" had been seized in 2009 during an investigation into alleged building abuses carried out in the context of the organization of the swimming world championship. A part was then released from the Review Court in 2012.
The seals concerned two buildings, the Olympic swimming pool and the guesthouse; according to the investigating judge, the construction had been carried out without the necessary permits and the provision of the extraordinary commissioner of the world championship could not be considered equivalent to a public administration resolution. For the World Cup was granted the "faculty of use for reasons of public utility". As regards alleged abuse in the construction of the swimming pools for the World Swimming Championships, the process ended on April 30, 2013 with the acquittal of all the defendants. The judges pointed out that there was no building abuse and no violation of landscape regulations.
Bertolaso and the Grande Eventi investigation
The luxury sports center also ended in the Grandi Eventi investigation involving Guido Bertolaso: the then Chief of Civil Protection benefited from sexual services for the accusation inside the center. "I never used sexual services in exchange for anything else but only massages" said Bertolaso who explained in front of the Gup in Rome "I had just returned from three days and three nights of stress and I needed a massage. It is false, however, that I benefited from sexual services , as it is false that he drank champagne and that condoms were used, however never found "