Sentence annulled on nine counts and referral to the Court of Appeal for a further three cases, rejection of the appeal on two charges including that of criminal conspiracy and inadmissibility for two positions. This is what was decided by the Court of Cassation on the appeal of the entrepreneur and former mayor of Capo d’Orlando Enzo Sindoni against the sentence of the Court of Appeal of Messina which in January 2025 had sentenced him to four and a half years of imprisonment, re-determining the original seven years and four months, with related additional penalties, inflicted at first instance in 2023.
Sindoni was accused together with six other people for the activities of the citrus consortia Upea, Pac and Agridea which ended up at the center of a 2016 investigation for fraud against Agea, aimed at the undue obtaining of community contributions, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Patti and conducted by the Guardia di Finanza. In the detailed ruling issued by the fifth criminal section of the Supreme Court following the hearing last Friday, the appeal proposed by the defense lawyers Carmelo Occhiuto and Maria Americanelli was accepted, with total annulment of the sentence and elimination of the related penalties, for a series of tax crimes extinguished by statute of limitations (others had already expired on appeal plus various acquittals, note) due to the issuing or use of invoices for non-existent transactions between company acronyms.
Instead, we will return to another section of the Court of Appeal of Messina for a new judgment on two similar disputes relating to the 2015 tax year and for the hypothesis of an administrative offense against the Agridea consortium, with cancellation of the 100 thousand euro fine.
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