Aldo Bianchini
Dr. Angelo Villani – former President of the Province of Salerno
SALERNO – “Where did we leave off”, in a very complicated and complex legal case like the ALVI bankruptcy, it is right to remember, in brief summary, everything I have already written in previous episodes.
In this case, however, it is sufficient to remember in particular these three paragraphs from the previous articles:
The surprise blow came at 6:00 pm on any given evening, when ALVI was charged with an “unpaid x currency”, and not a balance, meaning the money was there but could not be moved; moreover, at 6:00 pm, even the attempt by Villani’s sister to deposit cash in order to cover the lack of currency, failed due to the bank’s closure.
Political – banking conspiracy? There is no evidence to affirm it, although the shadow is still present; it remains clear that a very solid group cannot be attacked due to an unpaid x currency; it doesn’t make sense.
But President Angelo Villani, not being a newcomer, senses the serious danger and tries to take action.
It is not easy to find the reasons that led a business giant built by the Villani family over many years of hard work to fall into disgrace and end up adrift in a short time, perhaps even in a few minutes. Firstly, the main reason, perhaps planned but by unknown hands, but certainly planned, immediately leads us to the first paragraph mentioned above. And for anyone who knows even minimally about “banking matters”, they know very well that industrial empires are exclusively based on the bank-business relationship, and when this relationship fails, the company’s credibility melts away like snow in the sun and the lack of trust from third parties immediately disappears.
That infamous evening at the Bank of Campania, just that happened; and the leader of the industrial group, Dr. Angelo Villani, realizing in a few minutes that the situation could degenerate (even the qualified press had turned against him, as we analyzed in the previous article), as it did, and in order to remedy it, he sent his sister with cash to cover that so-called “unpaid x currency”, but the bank firmly refused, as was within its legitimate peculiarities.
From that moment, the financial difficulties of the group increased immensely and, as always happens in these cases, the first non-worrisome bankruptcy requests were made; then through lawyer Pagnotta (at the time defender of the group), it was made known to Judge Dr. Giorgio Iachia, who would be handling the bankruptcy, that Alvi intended to request an agreement with the few creditors who had submitted requests; the judge’s response was unequivocal: “wait for the first hearing to request a motivated adjournment”.
But to everyone’s surprise, at the first hearing, without any delay, ALVI was declared bankrupt, and from there, one of the moments of destruction of a major company never seen before, at least in the judicial history of the Salerno district, began.
And so Dr. Villani implemented a new strategy to avoid collapse; he silently paid all the due amounts to his numerous employees through regular bank payments, in order to demonstrate that the company firstly prioritized its employees and their jobs; and even more. In fact, some time before the bankruptcy declaration, the members of the Villani family injected the value of all the properties individually registered under their names into the company. In other words, the Villani family did something completely different and contrary to the usual bankruptcies, where they try to get rid of their assets before the incriminating date and save them. After this courageous act, it is unimaginable that the Villani family, as the prosecution claims, could ever have thought of emptying the Alvi colossus through money transfers to other satellite companies in order to save their assets and leave the creditors empty-handed. A bankruptcy that the Prosecutor’s Office has estimated to have caused an economic hole of over 200 million euros.
This last point leads to a broader reflection on the largely meritorious but sometimes particularly devastating work of the Guardia di Finanza; a sort of “wherever I catch … I catch” that seems to possess those military personnel; because there will always be someone, afterwards, to rectify the mistakes made. There would be many examples; I will only mention the last two cases: the raid against the kings of Salerno’s nightlife (with seizures still to be evaluated) and the seizure of the Giglio di Mare resort in Capaccio, which the Administrative Court rehabilitated. Moreover, it is important to remember that the period of the Villani bankruptcy coincided with a devastating, but futile, trawling operation carried out by the then Guardia di Finanza against various political figures, entrepreneurs, and even the Roman Catholic Church (Archbishop Pierro and Monsignor Scarano).
Despite this, the proceedings continued, even leading to the sensational arrests ten years ago and the verdict on February 5, 2022, with requests for convictions (67.1 years of imprisonment for the ten defendants, including Angelo Villani, who was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison).
The appeal process is coming to a conclusion; in the closing arguments, the Attorney General requested the confirmation of Angelo Villani’s conviction; the verdict should arrive before the next Easter. We shall see!
