Case of white coats, Governor Fontana also acquitted on appeal: “Three years on the grill”

The Milan Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal by the president of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana accused of fraud in public supplies together with four other people in the so-called scrubs case. There gup Chiara Valori in fact, in the preliminary hearing on May 13, 2022, he had issued a sentence of “no place to proceed because the fact does not exist” for the governor, for his brother-in-law Andrea Dini, owner of Dama spa, for Filippo Bongiovanni and Carmen Schweigl, former general manager and manager of Aria, the regional purchasing center, and for the deputy secretary general of the Lombardy Region, Pier Attilio Superti.

This morning the second criminal section of the Milanese Court of Appeal (Manzi-Banci Buonamici-Siclari college) confirmed the judge’s ruling over a year ago. The Court’s reasons will arrive in 90 days.

The “transformation” from supply to the regional purchasing center of gowns and other PPE by Dama spa, the company of Andrea Dini, Fontana’s brother-in-law (the governor’s wife had a 10% stake in the spa), wrote the gup in the reasons for the acquittals, “was accomplished with a contractual novation that was made in the clear, brought to the attention of the parties, not simulated but expressly declared” and there was no “deception”. In the ‘white coats case’, the judge had explained, “the concealment of the supposed breach of contract appears to be completely lacking”.

However, the disputed breach by the deputy Maurizio Romanelli and by prosecutors Paolo Filippini and Carlo Scalas, when that April 2020 supply entrusted to Dama by 75 thousand gowns and another 7 thousand dpi for 513 thousand euros, had turned into a donation, after the delivery of about 50 thousand gowns, and the remaining 25 thousand had no longer been delivered. Hence the charge of fraud in public supplies. The Prosecutor had filed an appeal and the Deputy Attorney General Massimo Gaballo at the hearing he had insisted that the defendants go to trial. Process deemed, however, unnecessary both by the investigating judge and now by the Court of Appeal. The decision is final, not appealable.

“Fontana suffered for three years on a grill and then today it ended like this. We were involved in an affair that had nothing from a criminal point of view, I’m sorry for those who worked for nothing”. Thus the lawyer Jacopo Pensa, defender of the Lombard president together with his colleague Federico Papa, commented the confirmation of the acquittal, by the Milan Court of Appeal, for the Lombard governor and four other suspects in the scrubs case. The acquittal of all five suspects is now definitive, because the Milanese Attorney General, who following the appeal of the prosecutors had asked that everyone go to trial, cannot challenge the decision.

“We are very satisfied – added the lawyer Pensa – I am not satisfied with the fact that it took so much time and resources to establish something of common sense, obviously, and I say this not because the prosecutors cannot do their job , but because they also have to make other assessments”. And the lawyer Papa: “We are happy with the outcome, we are sorry for the lost time and wasted resources and this decision can be an example for the ongoing discussion on the unappealability of certain sentences”.

The lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone, who defends Andrea Dini, together with the lawyers Riccardo Lugaro and Caterina Fattaexplained: “Dr. Andrea Dini is a great gentleman, one of the most reflective people I’ve ever known and of whom I am honored to be a friend. He had to face a long and useless procedure – added the defender – but what remains is his absolute and crystalline innocence, which was confirmed by the Milan Court of Appeal”.

The Court confirmed the acquittals also for Filippo Bongiovanni and Carmen Schweigl, respectively former general manager and manager of Aria, the regional purchasing center, defended by the lawyer Domenico Aielloand for Pier Attilio Superti, Deputy Secretary General of the Region, assisted by the lawyer Pietro Gabriele Roveda.