Yet another judicial storm hits Apulian politics. This evening a former councilor of the Puglia Region, the leader of Senso civico Alfonso Pisicchio, and his brother Enzo, ended up under house arrest as part of an investigation by the Bari Prosecutor's Office. The crimes alleged against the former councilor of the council Emiliano, and another five people arrested (one in prison, four under house arrest) are, among other things, corruption for an act contrary to official duties, corruption for the exercise of the function, fraud, aggravated fraud for the obtaining of public funds, material falsehood, disturbed freedom of auctions, issuing of invoices for non-existent operations.
A few hours before being arrested, Alfonso Pisicchio had resigned from the leadership of the Puglia Technology Agency, explaining that "there was no conspiracy" behind his choice. The investigation coordinated by the Bari Prosecutor's Office concerns three alleged rigged tenders. Cosimo Napoletano, 58 years old, from Monopoli, ended up in prison. Under house arrest, in addition to the Pisicchio brothers, are Francesco Catanese, 59 years old, from Bari, and the 58 year old entrepreneur Giovanni Riefoli, originally from Barletta but resident in Bari. The ban from professional activity for one year concerns Vincenzo Iannuzzi and Grazia Palmitessa.
In the order signed by the investigating judge of the Bari court, Ilaria Casu, it is highlighted that for Alfonsino Pisiscchio the accusations of corruption and disturbed freedom of auctions concern the period in which he was councilor of the Emiliano council, when he allegedly used "his political influence and his relations, through his brother Enzo, for a clientelistic management of his role, with favoritism to obtain returns in terms of electoral consensus, through hiring in favored or advantaged companies of people who ensure the vote and who had also served in his party". Enzo Pisicchio, on the other hand, would have acted "as an executor of his brother's directives" and as a screen to prevent tracing the role and contribution of Alfonsino.
The financial police also seized assets worth 800 thousand euros. The investigations revealed the disruption of a tender announced by the Municipality of Bari for the assignment of support activities for the management and collection of taxes, awarded in September 2019, with a starting bid amount of approximately 5, 5 million.
The sole person responsible for the procedure, Francesco Catanese, would have artfully crafted the tender for an entrepreneur, obtaining in exchange the hiring of his wife. Furthermore, a member of the tender commission would have obtained the same promise of hiring for his son with the intermediation of the Pisicchio brothers who in turn were recipients of money, hiring, promises of hiring and illicit financing of the party by the entrepreneur to whom they had provided confidential information. Furthermore, false guarantee policies were apparently issued by a broker and then produced to the competent regional offices by numerous entrepreneurs for authorization to carry out extractive activities in the quarries. Other fake policies would have been used to obtain funding from the Puglia Region.