Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (CAI) SpA, Bonifiche Ferraresi (BF) SpA and Filiera Agricola Italiana SpA. Federconsorzi 2’s Pandora’s Box is full and spewing gall, amid the silence of the mainstream media and the organs (political, administrative and judicial) responsible for oversight. Updates and news to follow.
Consorzi Agrari d’Italia S.p.A. and Bonifiche Ferraresi S.p.A.
The Poison Dossier, previewed on this website, showed how the statutory mutualism of 6 major Farmers’ Consortia was diverted in the sale of their interest-bearing business branches to CAI S.p.A:
– Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (CAI) S.p.A. presents itself as a Federconsorzi 2, the collective coffer of Italian agriculture to which the pension fund of agricultural executives, managers and employees (ENPAIA) has been added.
– Bonifiche Ferraresi (BF) SpA, led and participated in by Federico Vecchioni (former president of Confagricoltura), is the minority shareholder with dominant decision-making powers. BF SpA is in turn owned by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) SpA.
At the helm is a business committee, the ‘magic circle’ of Coldiretti and its acolytes. All of whom, through appointments and stakes in the Chinese boxes of shareholding structures, derive personal profits from public and collective resources. These include former CDP president Carlo Costamagna, Coldiretti president Ettore Prandini, a woman who is listed in the dossier as the wife of Coldiretti secretary general Vincenzo Gesmundo, and various leaders of the confederation itself. (1)
AgriRevi SpA, the conflicted auditor
The secretary to the Senate Agriculture Committee, Hon. Saverio De Bonis, echoed many of the data set out in the Poison Dossier. Data that the writer has been able to verify through appropriate Chamber of Commerce searches. To expose, in a series of parliamentary questions still unanswered, some of the most serious conflicts of interest. Prominent is Gabriele Papa Pagliardini, director-general of AGEA, in the company of Supreme Court Councilor Fabrizio Di Marzio, among the shareholders of AgriRevi SpA. (2)
AgriRevi SpA is the startup in charge of auditing the accounts of CAI SpA. Whose president Monica Rispoli – in the PEC 18.12.20 previewed here (see All.) – reportedly informed Consorzi Agrari d’Italia Real Estate S.r.l. that she had found, ‘as a result of further internal verifications, (…) through chamber of commerce visas, incompatibility profiles that do not allow us to carry out the statutory audit activity in question, in compliance with the provisions of Articles 10, 10-bis and 10-ter of Legislative Decree. 39/2010 as amended‘. (3) Independence, objectivity and internal organization out of control, but since when?
Carrot and stick to the press
The advertising of Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (CAI) S.p.A.-in the Sole 24 Ore, the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, Saturday, 16.1.21-looks like the carrot to the mainstream media. The prize for not leaking about the business committee behind the Federconsorzi 2 merry-go-round. Corrado Giacomini, an agricultural economist on the Steering Committee of the Fruit and Vegetable Courier, in turn notes on 21.1.21 how ”neither the mainstream press nor many agricultural newspapers dwelt on what was written in the Dossier addressed to Public Prosecutors’ Offices, parliamentarians on the Agriculture Committees, the Court of Auditors and relevant ministries.’ (4)
‘The point that I think deserves attention is that which concerns the contradiction, at least so it is hypothesized, between the mutualistic purposes of the associated Agricultural Consortia and the participation in a joint stock company (CAI), where a joint stock company (BF), moreover listed on the Stock Exchange, even with a minority share, exercises, according to what is established by a shareholders’ agreement, a large part of the powers, which can limit those of the assembly’ (Corrado Giacomini in the Fruit and Vegetable Courier, 1/21/21). (4)
BF SpA responds with the stick, on 22.1.21, with a note in the Corriere Ortofrutticolo where it alleges the falsity of what is set out in the poison dossier and threatens denunciations to those who reveal its contents ‘in any way‘. In that they, ‘false it is repeated, are seriously defamatory and damaging to the reputation of the organizations and individuals mentioned.’ (5) It is unclear whether the reckless Federico Vecchioni – CEO of BF SpA with 5 pages of delegated powers exposed in chamber of commerce visas – also intends to sue chamber of commerce representatives, for the information exposed in business records.
Filiera Agricola Italiana S.p.A., Coldiretti, AgriRevi
Filiera Agricola Italiana (FAI) S.p.A.., another bandwagon of Coldiretti’s magic circle, deserves a brief separate note. Owned in equal shares (44 percent) by the joint-stock consortium Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (SCCA)-which also participates in CAI S.p.A.-and Ger. Cam. S.p.A., minority partner the Consorzio Produttori di Campagna Amica società cooperativa S.p.A.
Chairman Ettore Prandini and managing director Raffaele Grandolini, a partner (and former chairman, according to the dossier) of AgriRevi SpA (see previous section). Legal auditors Monica Rispoli – AgriRevi member and its president since 8.12.20 – and Fabio Marella, mayor Stefania Marongiu. They too are members of AgriRevi, as well as in the ranks of Coldiretti.
Who controls what, pray tell?
Dario Dongo
Attachment
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. Consorzi Agrari d’Italia SpA, Federconsorzi 2? The Poison Dossier. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 1.1.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/consorzi-agrari-d-italia-spa-federconsorzi-2-il-dossier-dei-veleni
(2) Dario Dongo. Coldiretti, Federconsorzi 2 and the director of AGEA. Question to the Senate. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.1.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/coldiretti-federconsorzi-2-e-il-direttore-di-agea-interrogazione-al-senato
(3) Legislative Decree. 39/2010, as amended by Leg. 135/16. Implementation of Directive 2006/43/EC on statutory audits of annual accounts and consolidated accounts, amending Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC
(4) Corrado Giacomini. Some questions about the governance of the Agricultural Consortia (CAI) after the agreement with BF. Fruit and vegetable courier. 21.1.21, http://www.corriereortofrutticolo.it/2021/01/21/alcune-domande-sulla-governance-dei-consorzi-agrari-cai-laccordo-bf/
(5) BF SpA on CAI operation: ‘carried out in the interest of the agricultural world’. Fruit and Vegetable Courier. 22.1.21, http://www.corriereortofrutticolo.it/2021/01/22/bf-spa-sulloperazione-cai-realizzata-nellinteresse-del-mondo-agricolo/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
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