The Public Prosecutor is asking for the bankruptcy of the company founded by Santanchè. Her lawyer: "Not investigated"

Due to an "obvious and manifest state of insolvency", the Milan Public Prosecutor filed a bankruptcy petition for Visibilia editore Spa, the company of which the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, was founder, and of which since last January it has progressively sold quotes. 

According to some media, even the name of the senator of Fratelli d'Italia, for years the first shareholder of the company listed in the segment dedicated to SMEs of Piazza Affari Euronext Growth Milan, appeared in the proceedings of the Milanese investigation for false accounting that took the away from the analysis from the accounts of Visibilia.

The prosecutor Roberto Fontana on 24 October last filed an application for "judicial liquidation" for the company that allegedly accumulated "debts for a total amount of € 984,667.14, with the date of notification of the first bills starting from 2018". 

The investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office and the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza dates back to 2016

.

The investigation was initiated by a complaint from the minority shareholders of Visibilia, filed on 10 June last.

The applicants in the 18 pages of the document had highlighted how in the financial statements of the company founded by Santanchè "from 2015 to 31 October 2021" there were "losses for € 8,622,854 and at the same time capital increases for € 8,438,291 were subscribed until April 28, 2022. ".

In addition, the minority shareholders in their statement also highlight how "over time the Visibilia Editore stock has had a constant loss of value, just think that in the last year the loss was 89.6%, in the last three years the loss was 99.5% and in the last five years the loss was 99.9% ". 

At the center of the investigations also alleged

, for "the liquidity injections resulting" from a loan signed in 2017 with a fund from the United Arab Emirates: a convertible bond loan which, as clarified by the Fiamme Gialle, has "allowed the continuation of the entrepreneurial activity but also, in fact, caused the crash of the share value which regressed by 99.97% ".

The losses of the company, meanwhile, explain the investigators, have been calmed "by the erroneous accounting of the assets, goodwill and deferred tax assets".

While the state tax debts are not "paid in installments" and the first files date back to 2018. Based on these analyzes, the investigations against the former directors of Visibilia are underway, including Santanchè's partner,

The bankruptcy petition will be discussed before the judges of the second civil section of the Milan Court on November 30th.

On the ongoing investigation, with some passages secret even for the lawyers, there is maximum confidentiality.

Santanchè announces lawsuits, which is keen to clarify that "it is not being investigated and that it has sold its shares in the last 6 months. There is no investigation for bankruptcy or other tax crimes - specifies the senator of FdI - and that there is no no suspect, given that it is only a model 45 "file, that is, without suspects or offenses. 

"With regard to press news relating to the company Visibilia Editore spa, a company in which Senator Santanchè has held corporate positions in the past, it is specified that: - Sen. Santanchè is not under investigation in any criminal trial and has not held any office for years in Visibilia Editore spa; - it is not true that "a file is opened for the hypothesis of fraudulent bankruptcy", given the absence of the objective assumption of the judicial liquidation of the company, only hypothesized in the abstract ".

The minister's lawyer, Salvatore Sanzo, specifies in a note. 

The note also specifies that "Visibilia Editore spa is taking steps in every appropriate place so that the judicial authorities can recognize the absence of this requirement and in particular, as evidenced by a press release from the company, the shareholders of reference of the same - Reale Ruffino and SIF Italia spa - have expressed their willingness to intervene, where necessary, to fulfill any obligation towards the Revenue Agency ".

"Each different representation of the facts does not correspond to the actual reality of the same and is detrimental to the reputation of Senator Santanchè", concludes the lawyer Sanzo.