Former Milan urban planning assessor Giancarlo Tancredi, placed under house arrest in a probe into corrupt planning practices, is expected to appeal the measure ordered by investigating judge (GIP) Mattia Fiorentini. Tancredi will confer with his lawyer Giovanni Brambilla Pisoni. He is not alone in contesting the warrants; Manfredi Catella (former CEO of Coima) and Andrea Bezziccheri (patron of Bluestone, the sole detainee in jail) are also appealing. Architect Alessandro Scandurra, a former member of Milan’s now-dissolved Landscape Commission, has also appealed his house arrest via his lawyer Giacomo Lunghini.
Incriminating evidence includes a June 24, 2024, WhatsApp message from Tancredi, then assessor for Urban Regeneration, to Giuseppe Marinoni, then head of the Landscape Commission. Tancredi urged Marinoni to send a deputy to a project meeting, stating *”you cannot participate in the examination due to conflict of interest.”* The GIP deemed this message “symptomatic” and “evocative,” proving Tancredi was fully aware of recurring conflicts within the commission.
Further testimony alleges corruption. Federico Pella, former manager of engineering firm J+S and also under house arrest, told the GIP on July 23 that Marinoni received 70-80% of fees from J+S commissions, with the firm keeping only 20-30%. The GIP cited this as evidence of a “corruptive agreement,” where Marinoni allegedly provided “connections with investors and politicians,” including Tancredi, acting as a hidden planner who misused his public role. Marinoni is accused of accepting kickbacks disguised as fees for nearly 80% of commissions. The GIP rejected Pella’s defence that a congratulatory WhatsApp message he sent Marinoni upon the latter’s commission appointment in 2021 was innocuous, noting Pella was the first informed when Marinoni later won city contracts.
The investigation, led by prosecutors Petruzzella, Filippini, Clerici, and Siciliano with the GDF financial police, uncovered a scheme to mask private speculation with a veneer of public interest. According to GIP Fiorentini’s 400-page order, chat records show Marinoni and Tancredi allegedly conspired to add a token amount of social housing (“*una spolverata*”) to private-public partnerships redeveloping Milan’s peripheral areas (“*Nodi*”), purely to justify the projects as serving the public interest. Prosecutors assert this tactic was central to the “strategies, investments, and gains” orchestrated by “business partners” Marinoni and Pella.
The GIP also highlighted irregularities in the Landscape Commission’s procedures, noting its approval records were “formulated in a convoluted and obscure manner,” requiring interpretation by the commissioners themselves to be understood.
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