The financial statements as of 31 December 2022 and the half-yearly report as of 30 June 2023
"are not correctly" prepared and "the organisational, accounting and administrative structures appear inadequate".
These are some passages of the inspection report ordered by the Civil Court of Milan in the case brought by some small shareholders of Visibilia editore, one of the companies of the group founded by Minister Santanchè, which is now in a negotiated settlement of the crisis.
In the report, filed yesterday, the business "continuity" of the company from which the senator resigned as president in January 2022 was also questioned.
The inspection report of the accountant Daniela Maria Ausilia Ortelli was ordered last 4 October by the judges (Simonetti-Ricci-Zana) who accepted the request of the group of minority shareholders, led by Giuseppe Zeno and represented by the lawyer Antonio Piantadosi, who have filed a lawsuit for alleged irregularities, and prosecutors Laura Pedio and Marina Gravina, holders of multiple lines of investigation into the Visibilia case.
From the inspection findings, in addition to the results not being "correctly prepared" the financial statements and half-yearly report, it was established that "there are no reasons to deviate" from the doubts about "continuity" already raised by the auditors in relation to the financial statements as at 12.31.2021.
And then that "the organisational, accounting and administrative structures appear inadequate".
Furthermore, it is underlined, "the 2023-2025 business plan prepared by Epyone was abandoned following the failure to start the activities necessary for its implementation by Sif", the majority shareholder and company led by Luca Ruffino, who last autumn was removed from the rehabilitation project.
Ruffino - who committed suicide last August - was also the former president of Visibilia Editore itself.
For this reason, Visibilia Editore, the holding company that has Visibilia Editrice at its heart, resorted to the "negotiated settlement of the crisis (group maneuver) by attaching a business plan based solely on the publishing activity and supported by a necessary contribution from the shareholders".
The report will be debated in plenary on February 22nd.
In the worst case scenario, for old and new directors, the results of the inspection could lead to the company being placed under receivership and bankruptcy, with the associated bankruptcy penalties.
"The destination restriction on Dr. Garnero Santanchè's properties, rather than constituting a guarantee for Visibilia Editrice, actually reduced it", writes the accountant Daniela Maria Ausilia Ortelli in her inspection report on Visibilia Editore.
In the 26 pages of the document, which also reviews the intragroup debts of the Visibilia galaxy, of which Minister Santanchè was president until January 2022, there is also talk of the "assumption" of the debts by the Fdi senator, who, as had already emerged, he put up his Milanese house worth almost 6 million euros as collateral.
In the event of "approval of the restructuring agreement of Visibilia srl in liquidation (one of the companies of the group, ed.), which is sub judice", writes the expert, "the destination restriction on the properties" of Santanchè, "since transcribed for the benefit of the insolvency proceedings of Visibilia srl" will also be "opposable to Visibilia Editrice", of which Visibilia Editore is the holding company, "with the consequence - we read - that the restriction of use on the properties of Dr. Garnero Santanchè, rather than constitute a guarantee for Visibilia Editrice, in reality it has reduced it".
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