Boccia scandal, former minister Sangiuliano investigated by Rome prosecutor's office

After the resignation, the possible judicial problems. Former minister Gennaro Sangiuliano is in fact under investigation by the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, as revealed this morning by Corriere della Sera in an article by Fulvio Fiano. Prosecutors have in fact opened a file for embezzlement and disclosure and dissemination of official secrets following a complaint filed in recent days by MP Angelo Bonelli of Avs at the Montecitorio police station. The investigation follows the file already opened by the Lazio Court of Auditors for pecuniary damage, regarding the possibility that the former minister used public money for the expenses of businesswoman Maria Rosaria Boccia, who followed Sangiuliano on his institutional trips but had no official assignment.

The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office will forward the file this morning to the Court of Ministers, which has jurisdiction over actions taken by the former minister in the performance of his duties. Sangiuliano will therefore have to answer about the involvement of Boccia, with whom the former titular of the Collegio Romano admitted to having had a romantic relationship, in the institutional activities of the ministry without the woman having any title to do so.

As for the embezzlement investigation, the action of the prosecutors coordinated by Prosecutor Paolo Rebecchi will therefore focus on trips, stays, and dinners attended by the former minister and Boccia in recent months as part of Sangiuliano’s institutional activities in order to understand whether public money was used for improper purposes. This, according to the Corriere, does not necessarily imply the presence of direct disbursements on the part of the Minister of Culture, although Boccia has already circulated emails from the minister’s secretariat that would prove bookings made on his behalf: in fact, it would be enough, according to the newspaper from via Solferino, that Boccia was a ’guest’ of the minister without, however, having a contracted role. There are also at least a couple of cases, the trips to Riva Ligure and Polignano a Mare, in which, according to Sangiuliano’s reports in recent days, the expenses would have been borne by the organizers of the events, who were, however, public bodies, and would therefore have supported the minister’s and the businesswoman’s trips. In addition, it is also speculated that Sangiuliano included Boccia’s share in his personal mission reimbursements. The possible fiscal damage will have to be quantified in detail before a charge will be filed.

As for the investigation for disclosure and dissemination of official secrets, on the other hand, the Prosecutor’s Office will have to ascertain whether Boccia had access to confidential information within the Ministry, in particular information related to the organization of the G7 Culture Gala in Pompeii. Finally, the Rome prosecutor’s office, the Corriere also reports, is waiting for the complaint that Sangiuliano said she intends to file in relation to “undue pressure” received by Boccia starting on August 26, the date on which the businesswoman published the post in which she thanked the former minister for her appointment as major events adviser, which was later not formalized: “the hypothesis,” the article reads, “is that of attempted extortion and invasion of privacy (the revelations about other alleged relationships of the then minister) but, the lawyer stresses, ’we refer to the prosecutors for the evaluations of the case.’”

Image: Maria Rosaria Boccia and Gennaro Sangiuliano

Boccia scandal, former minister Sangiuliano investigated by Rome prosecutor's office

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