Clamorous acquittal. The Gup of the Milan court, Lidia Castellucci, at the end of the abbreviated trial, acquitted Fabio Riva, one of the members of the family who formerly owned Ilva in Taranto, as well as former president of the group. At the heart of the trial were two bankruptcy charges relating to the crash of the holding that controlled Europe's largest steel group, later commissioned and then sold to ArcelorMittal. The "fact does not exist" the judges established. The Milan prosecutor's office, which had asked for a sentence of more than 5 years' imprisonment, has already announced an appeal after the reasons. Reasons eagerly awaited by all, given that they could also have repercussions on the future of the Taranto steelworks, already in the balance after the decision of the Lega-M5S government to revoke criminal immunity for new managers.
In October 2017 Fabio Riva, defended in the abbreviated trial also by the lawyer Gian Paolo Del Sasso, and his brother Nicola Riva had been rejected by the then gup Chiara Valori the request for a plea bargain (respectively for 5 and 2 years), agreed with the Public Prosecutor's Office, as part of the main line of investigation of the Milanese bankruptcy investigation, deeming the sentence "incongruous". The first rejection by another judge dates back to February 2017.
"We are very satisfied", commented Fabio Riva's lawyers. In the event that it is confirmed in Cassation, it could push Nicola Riva to request a review of the judgment against him. Nicola Riva has been ratified a plea bargain to 3 years in prison for the charge of bankruptcy.
In this context, it should be remembered that in May 2017 Adriano Riva, brother of Emilio, the former owner of the iron and steel giant who disappeared in 2, also signed a 2014 and a half year bargain for the renunciation of those 1,1 billion seized in the investigation into the crash of the holding company that controlled Ilva. The sum was then used for the environmental reclamation of the area on which the Taranto plant stands.
For the other members of the Riva family still under investigation by the Milan prosecutor's office, the way could be opened for a request for dismissal.
The acquittal of Fabio Riva - who against him for the Ilva affair also has a definitive sentence of 6 years and three months for fraud against the state - "according to his lawyers Salvatore Scuto and Gian Paolo Del Sasso will not change the fate of settlement agreement on the 1,2 billion,” reports Reuters. The former Ilva, now owned by the ArcelorMittal group, had been declared insolvent in 2016 after being placed under extraordinary administration in January 2015. The commissioner management had arrived thanks to an ad hoc decree signed by the Renzi government, necessary to safeguard operations and occupation after the opening of the investigations for environmental disaster by the prosecutor of Taranto. But between the Riva and the Amenduni heirs a fiery battle with expropriation is expected.
