(updates previous)
Police on Thursday confiscated
assets including a Sardinia villa and bank accounts linked to
former Lombardy governor Roberto Formigoni and his old friend
Alberto Perego ahead of their trial for alleged graft in the
region's health sector.
Formigoni, a Senator with the New Centre Right (NCD) party
of Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, is accused of criminal
association and corruption in the case relating to the
Pavia-based Maugeri healthcare trust.
The confiscated assets have a total value of around 49
million euros, equivalent to the estimated material value of the
graft of which the defendants are accused.
Formigoni has always denied any wrongdoing.
Eight other people have been indicted in the case,
including businessman Pierangelo Dacco', another friend of
Formigoni's.
Last year Dacco' was sentenced to nine years in prison by a
Milan appeals court for embezzling money through the San
Raffaele hospital in Milan.
According to the court, Dacco' helped create the so-called
"San Raffaele system", whereby entrepreneurs who worked under
contract for the hospital would intentionally over-bill clients
and give the difference to Dacco' who used the money for slush
funds.
He was also found guilty of misappropriating assets and tax
fraud.
The Maugeri trial is due to start on May 6.
Formigoni and the whole Lombardy government and parliament
resigned at the end of 2012 after a wave of scandals.
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