Imperia Mayor and former minister
Claudio Scajola and his driver Gianfranco Vece have been placed
under investigation by Imperia prosecutors over the allegedly
improper use of his official car, sources said Tuesday.
They are accused of embezzlement in allegedly using the
council limousine, an Audi A6, for non institutional purposes,
sources said.
"I have nothing to say," Scajola told ANSA.
"I think that everything always went off according to the
rules and common sense.
"I don't understand what they are talking about, we'll have
to understand it.
"I have understood from the prosecutor's words that there is
a complaint, we will assess it."
Former centre-right minister Scajola was acquitted by a court
in Imperia in February 2018 of charges of illegal financing of
an individual parliamentarian.
The case concerned allegations Scajola obtained special
discounts on renovation work at Villa Ninina, a family home in
the province of Imperia.
Scajola was forced to resign as Silvio Berlusconi's interior
minister in July 2002 after sparking controversy by saying
labour reform consultant Marco Biagi, assassinated by the Red
Brigades, had been a "pain in the a**e" and that if he had been
given a security escort "three people would have been killed
instead of one".
Scajola also served as government-program minister from
2003 to 2005 and industry minister from 2008 to 2010 under two
separate Berlusconi governments.
He was forced to resign as industry minister in 2010 as a
result of a scandal about a shady real estate deal involving an
expensive home with a view on Rome's iconic Colosseum.
But in January 2014, a judge acquitted Scajola in that
case, saying his assertion that businessman Diego Anemone had
paid for most of the flat for him without his knowledge was
credible.
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