Ferrero quits as Sampdoria chairman after arrest

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 6 - Sampdoria said Monday that owner Massimo Ferrero was stepping down as chairman after being arrested by finance police in relation to a probe by prosecutors in the southern city of Paola into alleged corporate and bankruptcy felonies.
    The Genoa-based Serie A club is not implicated in the case, it said.
    Ferrero a businessman and cinema producer, was arrested in Milan and has been taken to San Vittore jail, according to sources.
    Five other people probed in relation to the case have been put under house arrest, the sources said.
    These included Ferrero's daughter Vanessa and his grandson Giorgio.
    The case regards the bankruptcy several years ago of four companies based in the Calabrian province of Cosenza in the hotel, tourism and cinema sectors, the sources said.
    Ferrero's lawyer Pina Tenga said she had requested that her client be transferred to Rome so he could attend a search of his home there and open a safe.
    "They are treating him worse than (late Cosa Nostra boss) Totò Riina," Tenga said.
    Sampdoria expressed "great astonishment" at Ferrero being taken to jail for "bankruptcy issues regarding events of many years ago".
    It said the need for him to be taken to jail was "not clear".
    (ANSA).