2024-09-21 01:52:33
Italian prosecutors on Friday ordered the seizure of nearly 75 million euros from Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann and four others as part of an investigation into alleged tax fraud.
The famous family at the origin of the Fiat car empire, from which Stellantis emerged after the 2021 merger of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler, has been divided by a bitter dispute over family inheritance.
Turin’s financial police said the order was for “the interception of approximately 74.8 million euros ($83.5 million)” targeting John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann, and their accountant and Swiss notary.
Twenty arguments
The disputes are related to the succession of Gianni Agnelli, the former director of Fiat who died in 2003, and pitted his daughter Margherita, who inherited 1.2 billion euros, against three of his eight children, John, Lapo and Ginevra.
Prosecutors classified the alleged crimes as tax and property fraud. In the seizure order, which AFP was able to consult, they said that they had discovered an agreement that was intended to falsely state that Agnelli’s widow, Marella Caracciolo, was living in Switzerland while he lived in Italy.
Lawyers for Elkann’s brother and sister said “he has lived in Switzerland since the early 1970s.”
Moreover, the seizure order “does not meet the legal requirements… because, among other things, there is no risk of dispersal of the suspects’ assets,” they said in a statement.
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