On 10 February 2020 the Court in Monza, Italy, ruled in the major fraud case against Giuseppe Malaspina's accomplices.
The court found all accomplices, including dressage personalities Cesare Croce and Adriana Foti, guilty of involvement in Malaspina's tax and bankruptcy crimes, bankruptcy fraud, money laundering and corruption for an estimated amount of 234 million euro.
They were sentenced to jail time between 8 months and 6 years.
Giuseppe Malaspina (64) himself will stand trial later and stands charged for collecting bills for non-existent transactions up to 95 million euro.
Malaspina is a notorious Italian real estate entrepeneur, who is also behind equestrian centre Scuderia della Malaspina in Ornago, Italy. It hosts international dressage competitions, but it's 2020 edition scheduled for next week was canceled due to the Corona virus lock down in Italy.
Malaspina's aids included two persons well known in the Italian dressage world.
His ex-wife Adriana Foti, who is officially listed as owner of the equestrian centre in Ornago, was sentenced to 4 years. Cesare Croce, who is currently the Technical Dressage Director for the Italian Equestrian Federation, was sentenced to 3.5 years.
Croce aided Malaspina while being the president of the Disciplinary Council of the Order of Engineers of Monza and Brianza. He is also the architect of Scuderia della Malaspina in Ornago.
On 21 May 2018 Malaspina and his gang were arrested by the Italian Financial Guard (a militarized police force, forming a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance), which executed an order for custody in prison of all 21 suspects. After several days in jail for interrogation, they were placed under house arrest until trial.
Source: Cavallo Magazine - Il Giorno - Il Cittadino
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