Adriano, Fabio and Nicola Riva were indicted in the proceeding with the crimes, for various reasons, of bankruptcy, fraud against the State and fictitious transfer of values for the collapse of the group that controlled the Ilva of Taranto. Now the defences, which to speed things up have also waived the 20-day deadline after the closure of the investigations which took place on 17 February, will be able to try again the path of settlements for their clients before the investigating magistrate, during the preliminary hearing, which it hasn't been fixed yet. With the agreement of the prosecutors, they will be able to try to present new plea bargaining requests, modified compared to the previous ones.
On February 14, the investigating judge Maria Vicidomini he had in fact rejected the requests for a plea deal of the three suspects, who had been given the go-ahead by the prosecutors, evaluating the agreed sentences too low, between 2 and 5 years. The same judge, among other things, had also rejected the agreement with which the Rivas, last December, gave their consent to the return of 1,33 billion euros to Italy to make them available for the environmental reclamation of the Taranto plant . According to the investigating judge, it was only a "draft settlement" which brings together "in a generic way a multiplicity of reciprocal waivers of actions exercisable in civil, administrative and criminal matters" and "risk of translating into a substantial and total abdication (...) to the protection of multiple and varied interests”. In short, the Riva family will have to propose new settlements, with higher penalties and above all monetary compensation.
