Ex governor's brother convicted in Terremerse fraud case

(ANSA) - Bologna, July 30 - 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.