In early February 2008, Operation Dirty Money hit Olbia. Carabinieri officers from the ROS raided several homes, arrested people, and searched offices. Seven were taken to prison; the Milan DDA suspected the Gallura town was the epicenter of a major money laundering operation under the 'Ndrangheta banner. The magistrate who signed the investigation documents was Deputy Magistrate Mario Venditti, currently in the spotlight for the Garlasco case. Venditti also sent the Carabinieri to the Olbia City Hall and secured the seizure of 520 hectares of land belonging to Olbia real estate developer Giovanni Antonio Pitta. Eighteen years after the ROS raid, the Swiss authorities struck the final blow. Zurich-based World Financial Services and Pg Finanz AG have not filed for bankruptcy for €50 million over the purchase of 520 hectares in Spiritu Santu and two building plots (12 hectares and 28.5 hectares) in the San Nicola neighborhood of Olbia. This decision exonerates Italian-Swiss financier Alfonso Zoccola. And now the case for compensation claims for wrongful imprisonment has begun. Zoccola is seeking compensation for the damages he has suffered, both moral and professional. The same applies to some of the people arrested and exonerated.
A disaster
The Swiss authorities' decision follows the rulings of judges in Tempio, Milan, Cagliari, and Catanzaro. No bankruptcy, no 'Ndrangheta infiltration, then. Why? The reason is simple: the judges ruled that the Ferrazzo di Mesoraca clan doesn't exist, it wasn't even registered. The investigation's findings are disastrous: 30,000 wiretaps conducted, 15,000 bank documents scrutinized, a €50 million bankruptcy, seven people arrested, assets worth tens of millions of euros seized in Olbia, seven years of investigations in Italy and Zurich, trials in Milan, Cagliari, and Tempio, and, the icing on the cake, the request to dissolve the Olbia City Council.
Dirty Money, the victims
Everything has been annulled by court rulings and orders. What remains are the victims' stories. Like Olbia real estate developer Giovanni Antonio Pitta, exonerated after ten years. The investigating judge of the Cagliari Court, in his dismissal order, wrote that the money for the real estate deals targeted by Venditti did not belong to the Ferrazzo clan, but to Pitta. Then there are the lesser-known figures, like a skipper from Olbia arrested by the ROS (Italian Special Operations Squad) for buying a speedboat from one of the Swiss financiers who had fled to Olbia after the collapse of World Financial Services and Pg Finanz Ag. His lawyer, criminal lawyer Giovanni Azzena, says: "It was a dramatic situation for those involved, accused of having ties to organized crime. From one day to the next, they were catapulted into a world they were unfamiliar with. The investigation was conducted with extremely harsh methods."
The book
Milanese lawyer Giuseppe Melzi (a lawyer representing small savers in the Ambrosiano collapse, a prominent figure in Catholic volunteer work) is one of the victims of Venditti's investigation. He recounted his absurd experience in a book: he was arrested (and later exonerated) for a land purchase agreement, a consultancy for his clients in Olbia. Melzi says: "The 'key' of pre-trial detention will not be used with Dr. Mario Venditti, because his current colleagues are rigorously protective of criminal liability. This is the opposite of his guilt-inducing methods, especially when dealing with vulnerable, and more often defenseless, individuals."
Andrea Busia
