Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is under investigation for illegal financing and false billing. Also accused is his VIP manager Lucio Presta.
The Rome prosecutor’s office registered the leader of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, into the register of suspects a few weeks ago. This was regarding an investigation into his economic relations with a television agent.
At the centre of the investigation, are bank transfers for the documentary “Florence according to me”. These ended up in an anti-money laundering report by the Bank of Italy’s financial fraud office UIF in 2019.
Payment ‘above the price bracket’
Two years ago, Lucio Presta, for the television project aired on Discovery, gave Renzi almost half a million euros. This figure is deemed above the price bracket.
The money obtained by Presta could have been used by Renzi to repay part of the €700,000 loan he received from the Maestrelli family. Renzi used the money for the purchase of the villa in Florence.
An anomalous loan, news site Florence Today reports, cleared by the Maestrelli family through the current account of their elderly mother and deposited into Renzi’s account. The Florence prosecutor did not recognise any illicit financing. This was despite the 2018 budget of the Maestrelli company, from which the provision originated, did not show the final recipient of the loan as a politician. This is a requirement in law on political financing.
Renzi’s response
Matteo Renzi in response said, “My parents are 65 years old and are irreproachable citizens. Then I become Prime Minister and they become Bonnie and Clyde. There is a magistrate who asked for the arrest of my father, and my mother, then he investigated my brother-in-law. Then not being able to investigate my grandmother who is 101 years old, she investigated me for more than one crime and has created the conditions for this trial “
