The first round is won by John Elkann, even if the game is still pending. The appeal court partially accepted the appeal of the lawyers of the CEO of Exor and of Gianluca Ferrero, the family's historical accountant, against the searches ordered by the Turin prosecutor's office as part of the investigation into the legacy of Gianni Agnelli.
The prosecutor's decision was only partially overturned, but from what is clear from the decision, it is a significant part. The cell phones, computers and other devices confiscated by the Financial Police will be returned (which will result in the cancellation of the “non-repeatable technical checks” of the devices planned for next Friday). And a lot of documents are returned. Of particular note are those that concern “December”, the vault that controls all the companies in the group. The defense lawyers had pointed out to the court that the amount of material seized was excessive compared to the hypothesis of the crime: participation in the “unfaithful tax return” of Marella Caracciolo, Gianni Agnelli's wife, for the years 2018 and 2019.
“We are obviously satisfied because a legal principle of which we were very convinced has been confirmed,” commented lawyers Paolo Siniscalchi, Federico Cecconi and Carlo Re, lawyers for John Elkann. “The court recognized our reasons based on the principle of the citizen's guarantee, which is all the more true when we are dealing with a respected professional who is legally bound and protected by professional secrecy,” note Marco Ferrero and Paolo Davico Bonino, defense lawyers for the Accountant who appears in this matter in this capacity and not as President of Juventus.
At first glance, it seems that the judges wanted to limit the freedom of action of the prosecutors, who mentioned in the documents hidden treasures abroad, companies located in “tax havens”, undocumented payments, the need to reconstruct all of Marella's assets, etc. corporate events in December. The woman's will (who died in 2019 at the age of 92), drawn up in 2011, and the codicils from 2012 and 2014, as well as the codicils from 2012 and 2014, remain under confiscation and are therefore available to investigators. Then the documents referencing the alleged mystery surrounding residency in Switzerland. The list includes those related to the Chalet Icy in the canton of Bern, where Marella had been resident for tax purposes since 2012 (fictitious according to the prosecutor), an 18th century villa on the Turin hill and the family castle in Villar Perosa, a property in Rome on Via 20 Maggio.
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