The investigating judge of the Toti investigation: “At least 4 elections involved, risk of corruption in the next ones”
This is what was revealed by the investigating judge Paola Faggioni, in the order in which the house arrest for Giovanni Toti was ordered
The president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, would have acted as “principal” of his chief of staff and coordinator of the electoral campaign, Matteo Cozzani, to ensure several votes for himself and for the regional councilors Stefano Anzalone, Ilaria Cavo and Lilli Lauro, for the regional consultations on 20 and 21 September. This is what was noted by the judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Genoa, Paola Faggioni, in the order with which, among others, house arrest was ordered for the governor Giovanni Toti and for Cozzani. According to the magistrate,Toti and Cozzani would have participated in “several executive actions of the same criminal plan”, also in competition with the brothers Mario Italo Testa and Arturo Angelo Testa, believed to be representatives of the Riesina community of Genoa. In exchange for the electoral votes, jobs would have been promised to at least five people and a change of social housing accommodation. The agreement between Cozzani and the Testa family concerned no less than 400 votes coming from the Riesina or, in any case, Sicilian community< /strong>.
“HABITUAL TOTI SYSTEM, INVOLVED AT LEAST 4 ELECTIONS”
The corrupt actions alleged against the president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, would have concerned four electoral competitions which followed one another during the time span of the investigations conducted by the Financial Police and the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office. In in particular, these would be the administrative elections of Savona in October 2021, those of Genoa in June 2022, the national elections of 25 September 2022 and the administrative elections of Ventimiglia and Sarzana in May 2023.
According to the investigating judge, “Toti, pressured by the need to raise funds to face the electoral campaign, made his function, his powers and his role available, in favor of private interests, in exchange for financing, reiterating the mechanism with various entrepreneurs (the Spinellis and Moncada)”. The magistrate adds that “in some cases it was Toti himself who explicitly asked for the financing, promising the private individual behaviors or measures favorable to him or even reminding him that he ‘had done his part’, and therefore to expect consequently a ‘hand’ in view of the elections”.
“ALARMING SYSTEMATICITY, TESTED MECHANISM”
From the investigations, the investigating judge further writes, “an alarming habitual and systematic nature of such a perfectly tested mechanism emerged, which can also be deduced from the same terminology often used by the governor with Spinelli to allude to the request for financing (‘when you show me the boat… when I can come and visit you…’), which was immediately understood in its real meaning by the entrepreneur himself, ready to respond in kind by recalling his requests and interests”. Furthermore, for the magistrate, “the danger of recurrence emerges from the same surprising ease with which Toti expresses his intention to resort to requests for money from entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the momentary satisfaction with the entrepreneurial objectives achieved also following his own intervention”.
“RISK THAT TOTI REPEATES CORRUPTIONS IN NEXT ELECTIONS”
The house arrest for the president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, is motivated by the “current and concrete danger that the suspect will commit other serious crimes of the same type those for whom action is being taken and, in particular, who can reiterate, on the occasion of the next elections, similar corrective conduct, putting their function at the service of private interests in exchange for benefits for themselves or others” . For the magistrate, from the governor’s conduct there is an obvious systematic nature of the corruption mechanism.