Report
Bribes and contracts, an Italian sting nabs Elon Musk’s ‘man in Italy’
A number of government contracts are being investigated by the Rome prosecutors, but the most clamorous one, at least in these early stages, involves Starlink, the satellite array owned by SpaceX, Elon Musk's company.
On Monday evening in Rome, in a sting operation, the Finance Police arrested Paolino Iorio, CEO of Sogei (Società Generale d’Informatica, or “General IT Corporation,” a company fully owned by the Economy Ministry).
Iorio had just pocketed an envelope with €15,000 given to him by Massimo Rossi, manager of Italware Srl and Itd Solution Spa: a bribe, according to the investigators. Assistant Prosecutors Paolo Ielo and Giuseppe Cascini argue that it was not the first time this had happened, and their investigation goes far beyond single bribes, also involving bid-rigging: 18 individuals and 31 companies are under investigation.
The companies named in the indictment are a who’s who of the leading Italian businesses in the world of information technology and cybersecurity (Italware Srl, Dimira Srl, Olidata Spa, Sferanet Srl, ITD solution Spa, Digital Value Spa, Innovery Spa, Vipa Impiantti Srl, Buildings Vamp Srl, Albamar Srl, Samar Srl, Business solutions Srls, Mondostore Srl and Ismart Srl). Among the indicted we find Andrea Stroppa, born in 1994, known in the world of high finance as “Elon Musk's contact person in Italy.”
The full story is a very complicated one, as always when it comes to white-collar crime and alleged illicit interests. Iorio, who was placed under house arrest, is being accused of collecting tens of thousands of euros in bribes (the total figure has not been determined yet, pending the results of the search warrants being executed) from Massimo Rossi (who was also arrested) to favor the latter in procurement bids worth a total of €98 million. The two allegedly met a number of times since 2023 onward, “with a frequency of about twice a month,” according to one of the Finance Police’s orders.
According to the investigators, these episodes are part of a “complex system of corruption with a number of protagonists and with ramifications within the Defense Ministry, Sogei, and finally within the Interior Ministry.” The wiretaps show that Iorio was in contact with a certain “Antonio from Defense,” later identified as Antonio Angelo Masala, a Navy frigate captain, who, “in order to carry out his role in the scheme in the context of a supply contract” would “make requests for remuneration, as well as for the hiring of a certain person by one of the companies managed by the contractor.”
A number of government contracts are being investigated by the Rome prosecutors, but the most clamorous one, at least in these early stages, involves Starlink, the satellite array owned by SpaceX, Elon Musk's company. According to investigators, Navy officer Masala, after learning of the government's interest in acquiring satellites, allegedly organized a meeting on the subject to “hook in” the Italian contact person of the unscrupulous U.S. tycoon, Andrea Stroppa, and “contact him afterwards.” At this point, Stroppa is vowing a pitched legal battle: “I look forward to defending myself against these charges,” he wrote on X.
“In the course of these conversations,” the prosecutors claim, ”two aspects emerged: on the one hand, the naval officer planned the inclusion of Olidata Spa in the deal together with another suspect, and, furthermore, there was a clearly illicit disclosure to Stroppa (and, through his intermediation, to his contact persons) of confidential information regarding decisions taken during ministerial meetings.”
As search warrants are being executed and the ramifications of the affair seem to be getting wider, the companies Sogei and Olidata have expressed “full confidence in the judiciary” and said that they consider themselves “injured parties” as a result of any illegal dealings by their executives. We will have to see what turns up further.
In the meantime, despite the fact that the affair involves a company wholly controlled by the Economy Ministry and contracts tendered by the Interior Ministry, Defense Ministry and the Defense General Staff, and that in addition to corruption, there are worrying accusations about the disclosure of secrets involving national security, there have been few reactions from the political forces so far. The Five Star Movement only wanted to stress that the investigation would never have gone anywhere if wiretapping was limited to 45 days, as the government wants to do, while on Tuesday, at the Senate, Matteo Renzi made an offhand joke that he hopes Musk doesn’t know anything about Sogei, while Francesco Emilio Borrelli from the Greens, who took part in “an institutional visit to Sogei” just last week, limited himself to wishing that justice “act speedily.”
These revelations come just as the government is considering the possibility of using Starlink to rescue the ultra-broadband internet project in the NRRP. On Monday, Alessio Butti, Undersecretary with responsibility for Technological Innovation, confirmed to Il Sole 24 Ore that “talks are ongoing with some Italian regions – from the north, center and south – to experiment with the provision of a space-based service aimed at remote areas or areas without terrestrial infrastructure.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/tangenti-e-appalti-nei-guai-il-dg-di-sogei-e-luomo-di-musk on 2024-10-16