The dark epic of Filippo Antonio De Cecco continues with new episodes that once again involve ties to the judiciary in Abruzzo, the origin of wheat, and the 2020 budget.
1) TIES TO THE JUDICIARY
Christening party to PM’s daughter
Andrea Di Giovanni, assistant prosecutor at the Pescara Public Prosecutor’s Office, hosted his own daughter’s christening party on Saturday, 9/18/21 at 8:30 p.m. The prestigious reception was held at the Michelin-starred restaurant ‘Café Les Paillotes’ on the Lido delle Sirene in Pescara.
Filippo Antonio De Cecco-in addition to being the owner of the above-mentioned restaurant-is the offended person in a criminal case whose investigation is entrusted, combination, to Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Di Giovanni. Shameless (1,2).
Legitimate suspicion
Theoretically, it would be enough to ascertain an unusual discount on the number of place settings or the services offered at the banquet to assume the crime of bribery in judicial acts. The deadline for the restaurant to issue a receipt has now passed, and there is no shortage of material for investigation-among invitations, witnesses and photographs. There is perhaps a lack of will, in this as in other cases already reported in vain. (1)
‘In the judiciary there is a problem of corruption… We can talk about 6-7 percent, not more… Serious, terrible, unimaginable, unthinkable, also because we earn good money. I earn 7,200 a month, you live well, so there is no justification, it’s not a state of need, it’s not the guy who goes to the supermarket to steal out of hunger. It’s about greed‘ (Nicola Gratteri. See footnote 2).
The circumstance That PM Andrea Di Giovanni – in making Mr. Filippo Antonio De Cecco’s accusatory theorems his own – has activated investigations into crimes peculiar to certain professional figures against individuals lacking the relevant requirements deserves consideration in turn from those in charge. And if everything turned out to be in order, however, the history of the reception-which was of conspicuous value as well as planned-would still constitute a disciplinary offense. (3)
2) GRAIN ORIGIN
California and Arizona, regurgitations of trade fraud.
‘We select the best Italian, Californian and Arizona durum wheats because the characteristics of excellence are not found in just one variety of wheat.
Our experts select raw materials by touching the quality of Italian, Californian and Arizona hard grains. They do this while the harvest is still in the fields, before being sent to the Fara San Martino Mill.’ (4)
The website and social networks operated by De Cecco even today regurgitate the remnants of the false claims to the Antitrust Authority and the still unpunished trade fraud. The GIP at the Court of Chieti Luca De Ninis, in more than 7 months since the hearing, has still not lifted the reservation on Deputy Prosecutor Giuseppe Falasca’s disgraceful request for dismissal of a widely documented (5,6) trade fraud.
‘Best grains from Italy and the world‘?
The Antitrust Authority in turn seems to have turned a corner with respect to fraud and misleading advertising about the origin of wheat used in Filippo Antonio De Cecco’s pasta. Although, as already shown, he has deliberately violated his commitments to the AGCM and continues to spread the lies recalled in the previous paragraph.
The sinking river now concerns the labeling and advertising of ‘the best grains of Italy and the world.’ Deceptive in re ipsa, where Italy’s provenance is placed before that of the ‘rest of the world,’ without even mentioning its percentage share. As it should, applying theQuantitative Ingredient Declaration ( QUID ) rule to this hypothesis as well.
Quality and origin of wheat, some doubts
About the quality and origin of the wheat purchased by Filippo Antonio De Cecco’s wingmen, only a few doubts can be expressed. First of all, it cannot be believed that the ‘experts’ have ‘touched with their hands’ the quality of the 25 thousand tons of wheat – owned by De Cecco – that was on the Sagittarius ship and was not even allowed to land, in March 2021, due to the severity of the contamination levels. (7)
After all, precedents do not indicate any particular favor towards purchases of Italian wheat. An email 30.1.20 from purchasing director Mario Aruffo to president Filippo Antonio De Cecco, for example, proposed varying a blend from 10 to 20 percent Italian wheat (except then falsifying 5 thousand tons of French wheat as Apulian), only because of the delay of a shipment from the US.
Then there remains doubt about the quantities of semolina purchased from the European industry leader, instead of ‘coarse-grain’ milling wheat as promised in advertisements. The records of the Chieti investigation offer only a few clues, and it does not appear, however, that any authority carried out the necessary investigations into semolina purchases on these grounds.
3) BALANCE SHEET AS OF 12/31/20
Budget 2020, the hidden rejection
The chairman of the board of auditors Simonetta Conti – in her email 16.3.21 to the shareholders of F.lli De Cecco-Fara San Martino S.p.A.-found their disapproval of both the financial statements as of 12/31/20 and the purchase of a stake (10.39%) in the subsidiary Molino e Pastificio De Cecco S.p.A. Committing the board to verify the disputed facts and acts.
Therefore, both the 2020 financial statements posted on De Cecco’s website and the Ernst & Young report to the financial statements turn out to be false. Where, under the heading ‘other matters,’ reference is made to a previous auditor’s report dated February 24, 2021, which reportedly gave an unqualified opinion. Instead, keeping silent about the rejection of the first draft of the budget.
Facts after closure
The 2020 budget does not report anything in the section ‘Significant events after the end of the financial year‘ about the Sagittarius event. The ship docked at the port of Bari on 8.3.21-with a cargo of 25,000 tons of U.S. durum wheat owned by De Cecco-and remained at anchor in the roadstead until 2.5.21, when it sailed on a Dubai route.
F.lli De Cecco-Fara San Martino S.p.A. paid the freight and demurrage, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros. In addition to losing much of the value of 25 thousand t of Arizona wheat (about 11 million), unfit for human consumption. The extent of the damage was known even before the budget was approved, but the event is not even mentioned. Banks, creditors and bondholders were therefore kept in the dark, in defiance of accounting rules (OIC 29).
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo. Filippo Antonio De Cecco and the mysteries of Italian justice. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 10.8.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/filippo-antonio-de-cecco-e-i-misteri-della-giustizia-italiana
(2) Valter Vecellio. Prosecutor Gratteri said 400 magistrates are corrupt. I have waited three months, can it be that no one wants to see this through? Italy Today. 5/19/20, https://www.italiaoggi.it/amp/news/il-procuratore-gratteri-ha-detto-che-400-magistrati-sono-corrotti-ho-atteso-tre-mesi-possibile-che-nessuno-2447412
(3) Legislative Decree. 109/06 as amended. Discipline of disciplinary offenses of magistrates, their sanctions and the procedure for their applicability, as well as amendment of the discipline on incompatibility, dispensation from service and transfer of office of magistrates. See Article 3.1. Text updated as of 7/22/15 on Normattiva, https://bit.ly/3kAiyak
(4) De Cecco. Our Method. https://www.dececco.com/it_it/il-nostro-metodo/#La-Selezione. Accessed on 14.11.21
(5) Dario Dongo. Filippo Antonio De Cecco, maxi-fraud on the origin of wheat. Chieti’s GIP has the floor. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.4.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/filippo-antonio-de-cecco-maxi-frode-sull-origine-del-grano-la-parola-al-gip-di-chieti
(6) Dario Dongo. Spaghetti westerns in the Abruzzese style. Mr. De Cecco’s pastatrac. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 26.2.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/spaghetti-western-all-abruzzese-il-pastatrac-del-signor-de-cecco
(7) Filippo Antonio De Cecco, more trouble from the US to Italy. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 4/29/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/filippo-antonio-de-cecco-altri-guai-dagli-usa-all-italia
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
