Top court confirms 3.5 mn seizure from ex-House pres Pivetti

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 21 - Italy's supreme court of Cassation on Tuesday confirmed the seizure of 3.5 million euros in assets from former Lower House Speaker Irene Pivetti, formerl of the Northern League (now just League) on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.
    Finance police notified Pivetti and six other people in November that Milan prosecutors have concluded a probe into alleged tax fraud, money laundering and self laundering.
    This notification is frequently served before prosecutors request indictments.
    The rally driver Leonardo Leo Isolani is also among the suspects.
    Finance police also seized four million euros in assets last year as a preventative measure in relation to the case.
    The case regards allegedly wrongdoing dating back to 2016 and involving operations by a company belonging to Isolani, who has a racing team, allegedly aimed at hiding assets from the tax authorities.
    Only Italia, a company chaired by Pivetti, allegedly had a brokering role.
    One of the suspect operations regards the sale of three Ferraris.
    Isolani allegedly sold all the assets of a company that was in debt to the tax authorities for several million euros in order to empty it.
    These assets allegedly went to a San Marino based firm owned by Isolani and then to a Hong Kong company alleged linked to Pivetti.
    The assets were then allegedly sold on to the Daohe group of Chinese magnate Zhou Xi Jian.
    Pivetti, 59, Pivetti (born 4 April 1963 in Milan) is an Italian journalist, television presenter and politician. She was President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 1996, the youngest ever Lower House Speaker, at the age of 31.
    After leaving politics, she started a career in television, like her sister Veronica, a popular Italian actress. (ANSA).