THE SENTENCE: FORMER PARTNER ANGELO
FORNI ALSO CONDEMNED
Espionage in Aureli’s companies,secrets stolen for
millions of Euro
STOLEN projects, 3,700 files misappropriated and at least 650 folders
containing pricelists, customers, productivity calculations, discount
percentages. It’s a real case of international industrial espionage involving
Aetna Group Spa companies, its German subsidiary Aetna Deutschland and
Robopac Spa with headquarters in San Marino owned by Alfredo Aureli
and children Enrico and Valentina.
The economic damages incurred by the company have yet to be quantified,
but surely no less than 10 million Euro. The events that date back to 2006
and which finally reached a conclusion on Friday night since the end of the
limitation period was just around the corner. In fact, the sentence was
reached in the late evening in the case against a series of prominent
individuals who held top positions in the group’s companies, including
Aureli’s former partner, Angelo Forni. Sentenced to a year and six months
imprisonment both Giovanni Berardi, from Rimini, manager of the leader
company in Germany, and Maurizio Galassi, from San Marino. One year
and four months for Angelo Forni and Valeriano Bruni, Robopac sales
manager. One year to both Thomas Manfred Weinmann, German, and
Robert Jean Barillaro, French, both top managers of the group companies in
their respective countries. All the accused were found guilty of unfair
competition and market disturbance for having appropriated information,
documents and files containing Aetna Group’s technical and sales knowhow and for having given it to the competitor company Atlanta Stretch,
founded by Forni.
Berardi and Galassi were also found guilty of another crime: fraud for
having appropriated funds from a former Aetna group’s company coffers
through a mechanism that involved the payment of false commissions on
purchases. These amounts were then collected by a company in San
Marino, Mediatech, administered by Galassi.
All the sentences were suspended, but the judge still ordered an immediate
writ of execution against the accused for 500 thousand Euro and another 20
thousand Euro for fraud. Naturally, Aetna group companies have already
filed civil suit to quantify the damages which, as already initially
mentioned, may not be under 10 million Euro.
Angelo Forni appears to be the determinant figure in these circumstances,
who also appears in the mega inquiry, called “Conto Mazzini”, that is
currently shaking up San Marino and that has already led to the arrest of
two former State Secretaries, Claudio Podeschi and Fiorenzo Stolfi. In the
investigation by San Marino magistrates, Forni's name appeared several
times tied to the movement of significant amounts of money in various
companies (Atlanta Stretch is also mentioned) with headquarters in various
tax havens.
Monica Raschi.