Three short handwritten cards: here is the set of holographic wills of Gianni Agnelli, the starting point of the legal battle waged by his daughter Margherita over the inheritance
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The manuscripts were read in Turin on 24 February 2003, exactly one month after the Lawyer's death, in the office of the notary Ettore Morone: in recent days the Prosecutor's Office instructed the Financial Police to visit his registered office.
The files are not unpublished and are not being investigated by the magistrates, who are instead interested in looking for the originals of other documents drawn up in subsequent years.
In the first form, drawn up on 12 December 1983, Gianni Agnelli delegated "the usufruct of the Gapi spa shares to my wife Marella Caracciolo" observing that the prerogative was "to be understood as being responsible for the entire inheritance and is to be withdrawn before any other distribution".
With the second, dated 14 January 1985,
Agnelli appointed "lawyer Franzo Grande Stevens as executor".
The third, of 20 April 1999, concerned real estate.
The villa on the Turin hill, in Strada San Vito Revigliasco, is linked "for life usufruct to my wife Marella and for bare ownership to my two children Margherita and Edoardo in equal shares", as well as the properties of Villar Perosa (Turin)
A building in Rome, in Via XXIV Maggio 14, is linked "for life usufruct to my wife Marella",
and other buildings on the Turin hill (in Strada San Vito Revigliasco) to Edoardo.
For further information Agenzia ANSA Eredità Agnelli, magistrates' focus on foreign accounts - News - Ansa.it More documents acquired.
Il Fatto: 'We are looking for 500 million' (ANSA)
At the center of this investigation is the will of Marella Caracciolo, which was drawn up on 12 August 2011 by the Swiss notary Urs Von Gruenigen, with the two 'additions' of 14 August 2012 and 22 August 2014
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The financial police have been tasked with recovering the originals of the documents.
On March 2, 2004, after negotiations that began the previous autumn, Margherita Agnelli signed an agreement in Geneva with her mother.
In exchange for renouncing her shareholdings in the family companies,
Margherita obtained 109 million and the transfer of ownership of various properties, furnishings, works of art and other assets, for a total estimate (at the time) of approximately 1.6 billion EUR
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She also undertook to pay her mother an annuity of around 7 million.
The Turin prosecutor's office is now interested in verifying
the changes in the composition of 'Dicembre', the holding company which, like a real safe, controls the rest of the family companies: John Elkann, son of Margherita Agnelli and nephew of Marella , currently holds the majority of the shares.
It appears that on 19 May 2004 Marella Agnelli undertook in a private agreement to cede the bare ownership of her shares to her brothers John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann, reserving the right of usufruct.
The magistrates, however, expressed various doubts regarding this operation, so much so that in the search decree they speak of "obvious anomalies".
One circumstance is "the payment of the shares apparently made through fiduciary provisions (to Gabriel Fiduciaria srl) and foreign bank accounts (Pictet & Cie bank of Geneva) and, at present, not documented".
Gabriel Fiduciaria was acquired by Pictet & Cie in 2013. Three years later it was put into liquidation and in 2019 it was removed from the company register.
In the reconstruction of the Guardia di Finanza, it is one of the companies directly or indirectly attributable to the Turin lawyer Franzo Grande Stevens, defined in the investigation documents as "historical consultant and trusted person of Gianni Agnelli as well as his executor".
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