How it was born and what we know about the Toti investigation. The shadow of Cosa Nostra on the elections

Cozzani's confession: "One morning I wouldn't want to find the Dia (Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, ed.) in the office"

BOLOGNA – It was an interception between Giovanni Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, and a Lombard parliamentarian that turned the spotlight on the Genoa prosecutor’s office on corrupt facts that led to the arrest of the Ligurian governor this morning. The interception dates back toJuly 2020, during the investigations of the La Spezia Prosecutor’s Office into Cozzani himself, under investigation for his alleged corrupt activities as mayor of Portovenere. Cozzani, at the time, was also the coordinator of the electoral campaign for the list of the outgoing and re-nominated governor, Giovanni Toti.

THE CANDIDATURE OF ANGELO TESTA

The parliamentarian spoke of the candidacy on the Toti list of a person, later identified as Arturo Angelo Testa, able to collect “four, five hundred votes”, thanks to the strong roots in the Certosa neighborhood and the involvement of the Riesi community. The politician also proposed the organization of an electoral dinner with the same community, in which Cozzani and Toti should have participated. From the content of the conversations, writes the investigating judge Paola Faggioni, “it was clearly understood that Cozzani was acting on behalf of Toti”.

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THE MEETING BETWEEN COZZANI AND TESTA

Before a meeting between Cozzani and Testa, scheduled for July 21st in Certosa, Cozzani himself, in the car with a member of parliament from La Spezia, confessed some fears on the possible candidate and his possible links with mafia circles:“One morning I wouldn’t want to find the Dia (Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, ed.) in the office”. Testa’s candidacy, in any case, ultimately failed, probably in favor of the then city councilor Stefano Anzalone, as emerges from another wiretap between the Bergamo deputy and Italo Maurizio Testa, Arturo’s brother Angel.

THE PHOTO OF THE BROTHERS TESTA A PREDAPPIO

The parliamentarian writes on Whatsapp: “They made Anzalone win, because they fear that the press will bring up that thing about the raised arm”. The reference is to what happened in July 2011, with the publication of a photograph of the Testa twins in Predappiowhile they were performing the Roman salute in front of the bust of Benito Mussolini: episode which had also led to Italo Maurizio’s resignation from the position of deputy mayor of Boltiere. In subsequent wiretaps, however, Arturo Angelo Testa regarding his failed candidacy points out that “you leave through the door, but enter through the window”. From the investigations, therefore, it emerges that the contacts between the twins Testa and Cozzani continue, aimed at obtaining the support of the Riesi community for three Genoese candidates from the Toti List, including Stefano Anzalone, who also ended up in the list of suspects. Anzalone himself was found by the investigations to have paid the expenses for the accommodation of the Testa brothers in Genoa, on the occasion of the electoral dinner organized for 12 September 2020. Dinner in which, among others, Toti, Cozzani and the city councilor also participate totiano, Umberto Lo Grasso, also under investigation for having subsequently warned the Testas of the ongoing investigations. From various wiretaps of comments at the dinner, partly transcribed in the order, it emerges that the Testa twins were convinced of the success of the agreement: votes secured on one side, jobs for friends and family promised, on the other. From the examination of the electoral results, writes the investigating judge, it emerges that the three candidates of the Toti List sponsored by the Testa brothers, all of whom entered the regional council, obtained in the Certosa district “a percentage of preferences far higher than that obtained in the remaining electoral sections of the Municipality of Genoa”.

THE ROLE OF THE CGIL TRADE UNION MEMBER

The CGIL trade unionist, Venanzio Maurici, under investigation, also comes into play in the wiretaps concerning the repayment of favors by politicians for the votes obtained. He obtained a job for his daughter’s partner. Still from what was reconstructed through the interceptions of the Testa twins, after the election, councilor Anzalone abruptly interrupted relations with the Riesi community, arousing the anger of the Testas: “If I wanted, this one after two hours he is no longer a councilor, he is no longer anything. In fact, he will even have to go and exonerate himself due to a vote of exchange”, says Italo Maurizio Testa intercepted.