Florence, 25 July 2011 – Revoked, by the prosecutor of the Republic of Florence, the request for commissioner for the pharmaceutical multinational Menarini, whose top management is under investigation for fraud against the National Health Service, tax evasion and money laundering. This was announced by the prosecutor Giuseppe Quattrocchi saying that "the requirements of the commissioner pursuant to law 231 have ceased to exist". However "the investigation is going on: there are subjective positions to be evaluated and it is early to talk about closing the investigation", added Quattrocchi.
The investigating judge Michele Barillaro will have to pronounce on the commissioner which set the next hearing on 28 July. Prosecutor Quattrocchi explained that the revocation - this morning it was filed with the magistrate's chancellery - stems from a series of assessments made by the prosecutor's office with respect to the attitude taken by Menarini in recent times. "The public prosecutor's office confirms that Alberto Aleotti is the real 'dominus' of Menarini, the only person involved in the corporate affair who therefore devised and moved the entire illicit mechanism under investigation - said Quattrocchi - However, the public prosecutor's office also assessed that the group In recent months Menarini has changed part of its corporate structure, thus adapting to the findings that emerged from the appraisals; which has taken important steps with respect to the foreign-investment of companies such as Miol [Editor's note: Menarini International Operations Luxemburg (Miol), one of the companies that drew the attention of Nas investigators and the tax police], whose legal figure has been brought back to Italy; which on 21 July formally paid the Revenue Agency the sum of 371,983,315.20 euros as partial compensation for the damage caused to the State”. Money that is part of the 1.2 billion euros seized on November 8, 2010.
Menarini, investigation found in archive in Switzerland expands
Investigators found the key to an apartment in Lugano in the availability of an official
Inside were documents on offshore companies attributable to the group, computers and even food
An apartment unknown to the investigators was discovered in Lugano, owned by a person very close to Alberto Aleotti, owner of Menarini, the pharmaceutical company accused of defrauding the National Health Service, tax evasion and money laundering. The investigators have already brought to Florence about 40 boxes full of documents relating to foreign companies attributable to the group.
From what has been learned, the foreign companies opened in Switzerland and Panama are the same ones that, according to the indictment, are involved in false billing to increase the price of active ingredients and therefore of drugs, to the detriment of the NHS. The documents arrived in Florence a few days ago
