Panama Papers: Italians Involved, from Trulli to Montezemolo

The President of Alitalia, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, is the best known name on the long list of Italians who have had dealings with the law firm Mossack Fonseca, based in Panama, published on the website of Italian news weekly L’Espresso. The list also incudes former F1 driver Jarno Trulli, Oscar Rovelli, a son of SIR’S Nino Rovelli, and Giuseppe Donaldo Nicosia, the advertising entrepreneur and business partner of Marcello Dell’Utri. Their company is on trial in Milan, and Nicosia is currently on the run, charged with a million-euro fraud.

Entrepreneurs and showbiz celebrities
Engaging in financial transactions in tax havens is not a crime or an infringement of administrative regulations under Italian law, provided assets held there and income obtained are declared to the Italian revenue department. On its website, Mossack Fonseca promises it can ensure the “appropriate solution” for every kind of business. “We do not know this law firm,” sources close to Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said. According to L’Espresso, “early in 2007 a series of agreements were signed that, among other things, name Montezemolo as a representative of Lenville”, a company based in Panama which appointed the former Ferrari chairman to use an account held with Bim Suisse, the Swiss subsidiary of Italy’s Banca Intermobiliare. In the documents acquired by the consortium of international publications of which of L’Espresso is part, we find the names of 800 Italians, including “entrepreneurs, professionals, showbiz celebrities” and sports personalities. A case in point is the former F1 driver from Abruzzo, Jarno Trulli, listed as a “shareholder” in Baker Street Sa, a company that Mossack Fonseca is thought to have helped register in the Seychelles. There is also Giuseppe Donaldo Nicosia, the advertising entrepreneur accused by Milan prosecutor Sergio Spadaro of fraudulent bankruptcy with Marcello Dell’Utri, former Forza Italia senator and one-time chairman of Publitalia, currently in prison in Parma after being sentenced to seven years for collusion with the mafia. Spadaro accuses Dell’Utri and eight other suspects of tax fraud revolving around advertising space sold by the agencies Publitalia 80 and RTI for the Mediaset channels and and by Sipra S.p.A. for the RAI networks, resulting in tax evasion of at least €62m, money which ended up in the offshore accounts of Nicosia or his associates.