A judicial earthquake has hit the top brass of the Italian Data Protection Authority. An investigation by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has the authority's president, Pasquale Stanzione, and the entire Board of Directors under investigation. The charges are serious: corruption and embezzlement. The proceedings, launched in recent months following a series of reports aired by Report , were suddenly accelerated yesterday morning with searches by the Guardia di Finanza, which seized documents as well as the phones and computers of the suspects.

At the center of the investigation are alleged "crazy spending" by the board and corruption related to opaque fines imposed over the past two years. The investigation, coordinated by Deputy Prosecutor Giuseppe De Falco, represents the judicial turning point in the months-long dispute between Sigfrido Ranucci's show and the Authority. "I'm calm," Stanzione, who is accused along with Ginevra Cerrina Feroni, Agostino Ghiglia, and Guido Scorza, simply says.

With the acquisition of documents, investigators are seeking further evidence for their prosecution case, which also relies on the testimony of several witnesses, including former general secretary Angelo Fanizza, who resigned two months ago following the case involving the request to monitor employee emails in the search for the "mole" who provided Report with information for its investigations. "Following our reports, the Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation," adds Sigfrido Ranucci.

Regarding the corruption charge in the search warrant, reference is made to the ITA Airways affair. The suspects allegedly received "Volare Executive" passes, worth €6,000 each, as an alleged benefit in exchange for not imposing a fine on the company . Specifically, the prosecutors write that the four suspects "by omitting an official act, or by not imposing any fine other than a purely formal one, to ITA Airways (where, it is stated, the data protection officer for 2022 and 2023 was a lawyer from the law firm founded by Guido Scorza, of which his wife is still a partner), and in light of the discovery of formal and procedural irregularities in the monitoring of communications, received the passes as benefits." Regarding the management of the funds, the Rome magistrates accuse the suspects of "appropriating them through requests for reimbursement for expenses incurred for purposes unrelated to the exercise of their mandate." The documents mention the purchase of meat, approximately six thousand euros over three years, and hairdressing appointments.

Investigators highlighted a "significant increase" in entertainment and management costs, which reached €400,000 in 2024. This money was also used for travel, stays in five-star hotels, business dinners, laundry services, and even "fitness and personal care." The decree also mentions foreign missions, "particularly the G7 in Tokyo (2023), whose officially reported cost was €34,000, but which, according to internal sources and informal documentation, exceeded €80,000, of which €40,000 was for flights alone."

Another chapter concerns the use of the company car. In this segment of the investigation, prosecutors implicate Ghiglia, who allegedly used the company Citroen to "travel to the headquarters of a political party for purposes unrelated to his mandate." Among the incidents listed is the procedure regarding "the fine imposed on the Meta company in relation to the marketing of smartglasses, devices characterized by evident criticalities in terms of privacy protection, both for owners and third parties," the decree states.

The political reaction was immediate, with the opposition, particularly Avs and +Europa, calling for the resignation of the Board of Directors. Sandro Ruotolo, head of Information at the Democratic Party Secretariat, asked: "What else should we wait for the resignation of the members of the Board of Directors of the Italian Data Protection Authority?"

(Unioneonline)

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