On the sidelines of the seizure decree, by delegation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Messina, of the Financiers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Messina towards the former Rector of the University of Messina, some sensational elements emerge.
One of the significant expenditure items was connected to the carrying out of self-declared missions on behalf of the University: in this case too, it emerged that a significant portion of the reimbursements requested, in relation to missions, concerned travel, food and accommodation expenses, incurred by the former Rector and, in some cases, by further guests of his, in locations coinciding with those where horse racing competitions had been held, in which the Rector himself was found to have taken part. In this context, the reimbursement requests were also reconstructed, promptly invoiced, concerning the carrying out of photographic services, concerning, contrary to what was represented, photographic documentation of horse racing events, therefore not inherent to the research activity.
Finally, from the detailed examination of the current account movements, unusual accreditations emerged, deriving from bank transfers with the former Rector as the beneficiary, for a total of 210,000 euros, ordered by numerous researchers, part of the research group of the “ChioBioFarAm” Department of the University of Messina, with various reasons, such as, among others, the reimbursement for the purchase of laboratory material and plant maintenance, or advance laboratory expenses. The investigation activities have currently made it possible to exclude that there was any advance payment of expenses for the purchase of materials useful for research by the researchers, due to the non-attributable nature of the signatures submitting the reimbursement requests to the same researchers, despite the fact that they had been submitted in their name.