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July 13, 2021 Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is under investigation for illegal financing and false invoicing together with manager Lucio Presta. This was announced by an anticipation of the newspaper 'Domani', according to which "the prosecutor of Rome entered the leader of Italia Viva in the register of suspects a few weeks ago, regarding an investigation into the economic relations between Renzi and the television agent ". At the center of the investigation, according to the newspaper, the transfers of the documentary "Florence according to me", which ended in 2019 in a report by the UIF anti-money laundering.
L'Espresso reported two years ago how Presta, for the television project broadcast on Discovery, "turned over almost half a million euros to Renzi, a figure that appeared out of the market. Not only - underlines the 'Domani' - if compared to the sums paid by famous conductors such as Alberto Angela, but also compared with what was collected by the Presta da Discovery: if at the time sources inside the broadcaster revealed that the documentary presented by the politician had been bought for a few thousand euros, today it turns out that Arcobaleno Tre (the company of Presta and of his son Niccolò - also investigated) has made Discovery an invoice for just one thousand euros, which among other things has not yet been collected ".
In practice, says the newspaper, "the documentary, which cost almost one million euros in compensation for Renzi and production costs, has not received anything to date. The money obtained by his friend Presta, former organizer of Leopolda, instead served Renzi. , in the autumn of 2018, to repay part of the € 700,000 loan he had received from the Maestrelli family for the purchase of the villa in Florence.
An anomalous loan that ended up in the meshes of anti-money laundering (the money was transferred by the Maestrelli through the current account of the elderly mother, and from here ended up on those of the Renzi), but in that case the Florence prosecutor did not recognize the details of the financing illegal, despite the fact that the final recipient of the loan (a politician) was not reported in the 2018 financial statements of the company of the Maestrelli from which the provision was made "as required by the law on the financing of politics".
"At the time - the newspaper writes - he justified himself by saying that for him the 'Florence in my opinion' operation was an investment over time, and that the rights to the documentary (which had less than 2 percent share) had a his opinion is an important and unquestionable economic value. Renzi for his part has always explained to his entourage that it is not his business if Presta wants to pay him like a movie star like Benigni or Giancarlo Giannini ".
The prosecutor of Rome, however, notes the newspaper, "wants to see clearly about the regularity of the operation. The major suspicions do not so much concern the documentary, given that the product - beyond the anomalous and off-market fees for the conductor-author - it has certainly been made and aired.
The doubts affect above all - writes 'Domani' - two other contracts and related transfers of hundreds of thousands of euros in favor of Renzi, discovered after a tax audit at the ArcobalenoTre headquarters. Money paid by the manager's company to the former prime minister for the sale of image rights and for some television projects that the two should have done together ".
In the search decree of the Presta and their ArcobalenoTre, prosecutors Alessandro Di Taranto and Gennaro Varone "speak of 'fictitious contractual relationships, with the issue and annotation of invoices relating to non-existent operations, also aimed at achieving tax savings , consisting in the use as deductible costs inherent to the business activity hidden costs of the financing of the policy. 'The hypothesized programs were in fact never made, and above all - concludes the newspaper - the payments to the politician were not entered in the budget ".