The handcuffs have arrived for Gian Mario Rossignolo, president of De Tomaso and former number one of Telecom. The manager was arrested this morning at dawn by the Guardia di Finanza as part of an investigation into public funds for 7,5 million euros disbursed for professional courses that had never started. The charge is aggravated fraud against the state.
The same charge also applies to Claudio De Grate, 57, manager of the car manufacturer, and Christian Limonta, 37, a financial professional from the Bergamo area, who dealt with the surety policy, which turned out to be false, which was supposed to guarantee De Tomaso the funds public for training. Rossignolo is under house arrest, the other two arrested are in prison in Turin.
The investigation coordinated by the Public Prosecutor of Turin started about three months ago, following the story of the phantom Chinese investor who was supposed to save De Tomaso with capital which, however, never arrived. The documentation on the Chinese associate was also false. However, the investigation mainly concerns public, state and regional funding received by the company to start personnel training courses for the production of the Deauville luxury sports car. The courses started for a few days and only for 67 employees out of the approximately 1.100 employed at De Tomaso, between Grugliasco (To) and Guasticce (Li).
