New accusations against former mayor Gianni Alemanno emerge from the Mafia Capitale investigation. "But you know that Alemanno has taken away... he has made four trips... he and his son with suitcases full of money in Argentina... if I've been taken... with suitcases full of cash... but it seems normal to you that a mayor...". The conversation, heard by the Rosas, is by Luca Odevaine (one of the arrested) and dates back to January 31, 2014. It is reported in the precautionary custody order with which the magistrates ordered his arrest.
Odevaine talks to Mario Schina, former head of urban decor at the Municipality of Rome, and to Sandro Coltellacci, manager of a cooperative. All three are under investigation in the Rome prosecutor's investigation. Odevaine adds that Alemanno would have passed the security checks without problems, passing through a passage reserved for VIPs.
The former mayor admits he went to Argentina, but firmly denies ever having taken any money abroad. In Argentina, he says in an interview, “I went there for a few days with my family and a large group of friends on New Year's Eve 2011-2012 to go and see the Patagonian glaciers. There are friends who can confirm”. But he dismisses the accusation of capital exports as "totally unfounded bragging". “I've never taken money abroad, much less to Argentina. I am the only mayor of Rome – he says – who at the end of his mandate is poorer than when he started, because I had to sell a house and take out a mortgage to pay off the debts from the electoral campaign”.
While the investigation proceeds, the president of Anti-corruption Raffaele Cantone invites everyone not to get carried away by emotion. "" People stop me on the street and tell me "arrest them all...", he says in an interview with La Repubblica. "This worries me a lot – he adds – because it reminds me of the desire for the gallows and the coins of '93”.
