They would have “made a profit” on public funding intended for important cultural events in the city through a system of false expense reporting. This is the serious crime hypothesis that led the Agrigento Prosecutor’s Office to notify six warnings for embezzlement and aggravated fraud. Among the excellent names registered in the register of suspects, that of the deputy of the Brothers of Italy, Calogero Pisano, stands out. The investigation, coordinated by the chief prosecutor Giovanni Di Leo and the deputy Elettra Consoli, focuses on the activities of the DMO Valle dei Templi and the Pirandello Foundation, both entities owned by the Municipality of Agrigento.
The names
In addition to the Pisano parliamentarian, the measures have reached key figures in Agrigento’s cultural management: Fabrizio La Gaipa, managing director of the DMO Valle dei Templi and Salvatore Prestia, director of the Pirandello Theater Foundation, who handed in his resignation this morning. And again Laura Cozzo, wife of Prestia and head of a cultural association, Calogero Casucci, member of another cultural association involved and Antonio Migliaccio, former driver of Pisano and legal representative of a cultural association.
The hypotheses of crime
According to the reconstruction of the Prosecutor’s Office, the group would have manipulated the accounting documents relating to the expenses incurred for the organization of cultural events starting from 2022. By inflating the costs or declaring non-existent expenses, the suspects would have managed to unduly retain part of the public funds provided for the promotion of the territory and culture of Agrigento.
Events under the lens
The notices of investigation, drawn up on 27 March and notified today, concern alleged irregularities in the management of funds for the “Xena Akragantos”, “Christmas Destination Agrigento” and “Destination Agrigento Costa del Mito” events, organized in 2022. According to the prosecutors, financing for 602 thousand euros was requested, tripling the real amount through incomplete statements and inflated invoices, such as the one for the rental of 34 chemical toilets during Achille Lauro’s end-of-year concert. The damage for the Region would amount to around 300 thousand euros. The crime of embezzlement has also been contested: the public funds, according to the investigators, were managed personally through cultural associations registered in the name of nominees but attributable to the top management of the Pirandello Theater Foundation. Three suspects are also accused of illicit financing of parties for a payment of 30 thousand euros intended for the 2022 electoral campaign.
Who is Calogero Pisano
Only a few weeks ago, on February 25, the deputy formalized his official return to Fratelli d’Italia with a letter to the President of the Chamber. This return had closed a phase of political “exile” that lasted almost three years. In September 2022, in fact, Pisano was suspended with immediate effect from Giorgia Meloni’s party due to a journalistic investigation that had brought to light old posts on social media in which he praised Adolf Hitler and supported Vladimir Putin. Controversies that had raised the indignation of the Jewish Community and numerous political leaders. But Pisano had already been at the center of a legal dispute with two of his former collaborators. The women had reported the non-payment of wages, leading the Palermo Labor Court to issue a payment order. After months of stalemate, and following a video denunciation by the former “Iena” Ismaele La Vardera which gave national prominence to the case, Pisano proceeded to pay the sums.
Barbagallo (Pd), another FdI suspect, Meloni don’t pretend nothing happened
«Once again public money used for personal purposes. Once again events, large and small, are involved, this time in Agrigento, with inflated expenses, financed through the regional tourism department. Once again the regional public administration is used as an ATM. And once again a member of the centre-right, of the Brothers of Italy, is being investigated.” The regional secretary of the Sicily PD, Anthony Barbagallo, says this – on the sidelines of a meeting in Messina together with the mayoral candidate Antonella Russo – commenting on the news of the investigation by the Agrigento Prosecutor’s Office for forgery, embezzlement and aggravated fraud with several suspects including the FdI deputy, Calogero Pisano. «At this point – he continues – I feel human sympathy for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, already in objective difficulty after the defeat of the referendum, but who must watch out in particular for her ‘Brothers. And especially in Sicily however – he concludes – he can no longer pretend nothing has happened given that the number of centre-right suspects, some excellent ones belonging to the Brothers of Italy, is constantly increasing”.