A court on Wednesday sentenced
the brother of the former governor of the Emilia-Romagna
regional government to two and a half years in prison for fraud.
Giovanni Errani, brother of Vasco, stood trial for
fraudulently obtaining one million euros in regional funds used
to pay for the building of a new winery in the Terremerse
cooperative, in the town of Imola, in 2005.
Co-defendant Giampaolo Lucchi, the winery project manager,
received a suspended sentence of a year and six months. The
court also ordered both defendants' assets seized.
Earlier this month, an appeals court convicted former
governor Vasco Errani of fraud in the same case, sentencing him
to one year in prison.
The court sentenced two co-defendants, both of them
regional officials, to 14 months behind bars.
Vasco Errani had been acquitted in 2012 in a fast-track
procedure on charges that he favored his brother Giovanni in the
Terremerse winery deal that made use of public funds.
The investigation into the loan began in 2009, after daily
newspaper Il Giornale suggested there may have been
irregularities in the issuing of the funds.
Vasco Errani resigned as governor upon his conviction, and
remains free pending his appeal.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA