Ordinary shares of Davide Campari Milano worth over €1.2 billion, held by the Luxembourg-based holding company Lagfin, were seized in the evening, after the stock exchange closed, by the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Financial Police) as part of an investigation by the Monza prosecutor's office, led by Claudio Gittardi. Lagfin, along with its legal representatives, is being investigated under the law on the administrative liability of legal entities. The alleged crime is "fraudulent declaration through other means."

The investigation by the Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza in Milan, coordinated by prosecutor Michele Trianni, began with a tax audit conducted between 2023 and 2024 on the Italian branch of the holding company. In 2019, following an extraordinary "merger by incorporation," the subsidiary absorbed Alicros, the Garavoglie family's safe, and the majority shareholder of Davide Campari Milano, a brand famous worldwide for its aperitifs and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Further investigations revealed that, at the time of the merger, capital gains from exit tax—the tax payable when a business is transferred abroad for tax purposes—of over €5.3 billion were not declared. These capital gains accrued to the Italian company being merged and were not taxed upon their exit from the country, as required by tax law.

In particular, the corporate group, through a series of complex transactions, would have only formally transferred the assets held by the Italian-based company to a newly established domestic branch, while the actual management of the financial branch was exercised at the foreign parent company level.

The seizure, as stated in the order signed by the Monza investigating judge, amounts to €1,291,758,703.34 – this is the exact figure – and was executed entirely through the placement of a lien on Campari's "ordinary shares" up to the amount ordered.

(Unioneonline)

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