The Riva family will pay more than 1,3 billion euros for the environmental damage caused by the Ilva of Taranto. The agreement was announced yesterday by the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, live on Facebook in the "Matteo replies" space.
According to the Premier, this is “extraordinary, very important news. This billion and four, made available thanks to the action of the institutions, will go to restore Taranto and Ilva. We can look to the future of Taranto and the industrial future with greater confidence".
But where will all the money come from? Probably from the treasury of 1,2 billion held in Switzerland and seized in 2013 by the financial police and Milanese prosecutors as part of an investigation into tax evasion against the Rivas.
In May last year, the investigating judge of Milan Fabrizio D'Arcangelo allowed the use of that money for Ilva's environmental costs. According to the Italian judiciary, they would be resources stolen by the Rivas from their own companies and shareholders, set aside on Trusts in tax havens and then illegally returned to Italy through the tax shield.
However, the money has been blocked by Swiss judges, who believe that releasing those sums "would constitute expropriation without a criminal trial". Moreover, the heirs of Emilio Riva, who renounced the inheritance in Italy, opposed the release in Switzerland.
At this point, however, it seems that the situation has resolved itself and that money will be used to comply with Ilva's recovery programme.
