Ita Airways, what Ranucci’s report says about Altavilla and Madron
All the details on the Report investigation into Ita Airways and former number one Alfredo Altavilla
Report tears the veil on the latest moves of the former president of Ita Airways, Alfredo Altavilla, shortly before being torpedoed by the shareholder Tesoro.
The Ra3 broadcast conducted by Sigfrido Ranucci puts the spotlight on both Altavilla's maneuvers also to discredit the managing director Fabio Lazzerini and some advice given by the former president of Ita as well as former top manager of the Fiat group.
But the journalistic world is focusing in these hours on the advances of the newspaper La Verità relating precisely to the episode of Report which is broadcast on Monday evening 19 June.
The program conducted by Ranucci tells the very special relationship between the former Ita number one and a small site founded and directed by a top-level journalist such as Paolo Madron, an expert in economics and finance in particular, with a long and prestigious career having worked and written for Milano Finanza , Sole 24 ore , Corriere della sera , Il Giornale and having been the journalistic top management of Berlusconi's Mondadori for 13 years (he was deputy director of Panorama and deputy director of Panorama Economy ), and in recent years he has been more known for books written with Luigi Bisignani; books that in fact only very long interviews with the lobbyist (but perhaps Bisignani's professional profile goes far beyond the figure of the classic lobbyist) convicted with a definitive sentence.
What did the newspaper La Verità directed by Maurizio Belpietro write today?
Here is the passage that concerns Altavilla and Madron in particular:
“But to whom should the e-mail with the article prepared by Altavilla be sent? It's not clear, although maybe we have a clue. In February 2022 Lazzerini had filed a lawsuit for defamation in the press for an article entitled "Ita reckless" published in the online newspaper Tag43. In January of this year Lazzerini integrated the complaint, filing the results of an activity of "acquisition and crystallization of computer data of Ita executives" who had left office, from which it would have "emerged that that defamatory activity" had been " literally commissioned by the top managers of the Company at the time”. In particular, writes Lazzarini, a report dated 17 October reportedly revealed "a chain of emails between the then Ita president, engineer Altavilla, and the then head of communications, Davide D'Amico", from which derives that on January 30, 2020, the former requested the latter to take action with Paolo Madron, director of Tag43 (news site, ed), to release "a vitriolic piece" against the undersigned". D'Amico and Madron, in an email, also referred to consultancy paid by Ita to Tag43, including one for 25,000 euros for an unspecified annual collaboration".
The case was mentioned last December by the newspaper La Stampa :
“Says Lazzerini on the board of directors: «On Saturday 8 October, the president and two managers exchanged emails to write an article which, according to their intentions, should have been conveyed through the press. The article attributed to the CEO and the six outgoing councilors "PD expression", so cited, the will to attack the president's proxies to quickly close the negotiation and pass the decision to the winner of the 2022 elections, Giorgia Meloni. All this, it is written, under the complicit gaze of Alessandro Rivera, director general of the Treasury, who, like the rest of the Mef officials, is also attributed to the Pd matrix ».
In the plans, one of Altavilla's closest collaborators (he too later fired for disciplinary reasons) must write the article and an information site willing to collaborate will publish it anonymously. The maneuver to remove credibility from the adversaries did not go through on that occasion because the press agency that supports Ita opposed it, but it took shape when, after an unwelcome interview with Lazzerini in Altavilla, the co-authored article was published online .
The internal investigation reveals that a close collaborator of the chairman a few days after the publication wrote to the owner of the information site to remind him – always says Lazzerini in the board of directors – «to send an offer for a collaboration, defining a net cost of 25 thousand euros for the March-December period. The bargaining chip in exchange for the dirty work: just a promise or does the payment materialize? There was no response from the Board of Directors. On the sidelines, there is also the threat of suspending paid advertising in a newspaper after the publication of some critical articles”.
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FOLLOWING AN EXTRACT FROM THE ARTICLE OF THE NEWSPAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT ALTAVILLA:
But to whom should the e-mail with the article prepared by Altavilla be delivered? It's not clear, although maybe we have a clue. In February 2022 Lazzerini had filed a lawsuit for defamation in the press for an article entitled "Ita reckless" published in the online newspaper Tag43. In January of this year Lazzerini integrated the complaint, filing the results of an activity of "acquisition and crystallization of computer data of Ita executives" who had left office, from which it would have "emerged that that defamatory activity" had been " literally commissioned by the top managers of the Company at the time”. In particular, writes Lazzarini, a report dated 17 October reportedly revealed "a chain of emails between the then Ita president, engineer Altavilla, and the then head of communications, Davide D'Amico", from which derives that on January 30, 2020, the former requested the latter to take action with Paolo Madron, director of Tag43 (news site, ed), to release "a vitriolic piece" against the undersigned". D'Amico and Madron, in an email, also referred to consultancy paid by Ita to Tag43, including one for 25,000 euros for an unspecified annual collaboration.
The Rai broadcast also talks about the great business of the advisors appointed by Altavilla. Boston Consulting signed a €370,000 contract; the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell would have been awarded a fee of 2.7 million euros, while for the Grande Stevens firm (a name historically close to Fiat and the Agnelli family) a fixed fee of 550,000 euros and a success fee (which would not have been paid) upon conclusion of the transaction of 2.15 million.
There is no shortage of personal expenses, which Ita's internal documents attribute to former president Altavilla. Eight thousand euros in a month for an elegant sedan to hire with a chauffeur. More than 2,000 euros of hotel nights in a week. Thirty-two fines for a total of 2,671 euros, for infractions of the highway code committed by the corporate Maserati. Among the fines inflicted on the "Maserati of president Altavilla", 545 euros stand out for excess speed. Fine followed by an additional 215 euros for the "failure to communicate data" of the driver of the company Maserati. The other fines concern 4 unauthorized accesses to limited traffic areas and 26 transits on the bus lanes.
Then there is an invoice for 4 nights in an "apartment" for 454 euros each, to which are added "extra breakfasts", minibar charges, meals in the room with the relative supplement. The bill, sent to Ita, bears the direct address of the Ministry of Economy and Finance: Via XX Settembre 97. Evidently Altavilla was convinced that he was not exaggerating. Tonight's broadcast will also talk about a "positive" aspect of Altavilla management, ie the first offer he managed to bring home, from Lufthansa for the sale of Ita, which would have been "a little less than a billion"; much higher than the 325 million agreed about a month ago for 41 percent of the shares. But at the time the Draghi government preferred to launch a public tender. Perhaps he no longer trusted the manager he had chosen to relaunch the airline.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ita-airways-che-cosa-dice-report-di-ranucci-su-altavilla-e-madron/ on Mon, 19 Jun 2023 07:17:23 +0000.