- Bribes: Cremona, acquit Formigoni
Share
July 14, 2020 The former president of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Formigoni, was acquitted in Cremona for an alleged round of bribes in healthcare. The former general manager of the regional health department, Carlo Lucchina and the former general manager of the Cremona hospital, Simona Mariani, were also accepted. This was decided by the Cremona court.The prosecutor had requested absolution. Formigoni and Mariani were accused of corruption, Lucchina of abuse of office, for the 'Vero' affair, the linear accelerator for oncological therapies that for the accusation had been purchased at a price higher than the market price.
The story dates back to 2011, when the Maggiore hospital of Cremona purchased the linear accelerator for oncological therapies for 8 million euros from Hermex by Giuseppe Lo Presti, in close relations with the former Lombard director of Forza Italia, Massimo Gianluca Guarischi , sentenced for 5 years for corruption. It was to him that the entrepreneur from Catania paid a maxi bribe of 427 thousand euros for the release of the regional financing which allowed the sale of the equipment to the Cremona hospital.
Up to now, the prosecution had claimed that, given also its links with Guarischi, Formigoni had obtained from this operation "utility for 447 thousand euros" in exchange for preferential treatment to Hermex Italia in the tenders for the supply of Vero diagnostic equipment. in some hospitals. By utility the prosecutors meant trips to Croatia, Saint Moritz and South Africa, where nothing could be missing: food, planes, private helicopters, boat rental such as the 30 thousand euro catamaran.
Formigoni was definitively convicted of another corruption case in health care, the Maugeri case. Annuities and pensions were seized at the "Celeste". It caused a tax damage of 47.5 million euros. Stay at home, serve the rest of the sentence which will be extinguished in 2023, in the house where he lives, in Milan.