Milan, 21 May 2024 – Investigation by the Milan prosecutor's office into the Milano Cortina Foundation, the body that organizes the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Three people are under investigation for corruption and bid rigging: the former managers of the foundation Vincenzo Novari and Massimiliano Zuco and digital entrepreneur Luca Tomassini. None of the three is a current manager or employee of the Foundation where the economic-financial police unit of the Milan Financial Police carried out searches, IT inspections and seizure of documentation against the Foundation, supplier companies and natural persons involved in the procedures of awarding technological performances for the Winter Olympics.
Seizures, from what we learn, also occurred in an Orvieto company that was entrusted with digital services for the Winter Olympics and in some Deloitte offices, which took over from the Umbrian company. The operation is coordinated by prosecutors Francesco Cajani and Alessandro Gobbis and by deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano.
“We have been informed like you, we are waiting to understand. The Financial Police does an excellent job and has our support. Now we see the results of the investigation which is never a reason for satisfaction and pride, but not even for concern”, said the minister for sport and youth, Andrea Abodi, on the sidelines of the meeting with the Roma Club Gerusalemme. “The foundation must be and is a glass house – added Abodi-. And anyone who wants to look inside must find the answers on transparency and management behavior.”
Pm: “Critical issues in 3 races”
According to what emerges from the search decree, “critical profiles emerge at least in relation to three assignments to Vetrya” in particular the development of the web and mobile platforms; Office 365 licensing services, cloud hosting and operations; Microsoft Azure information protection implementation – operated by the Foundation between March 2020 and January 2021 (and subsequently managed by Quibyt, after Vetrya was put into liquidation)”.
The Milan prosecutor's office underlines how Zuco is “always active in discussions with Tomassini in clear violation of the elementary criteria of transparency and impartiality in the awarding of public tenders”. While, in the same period, “an email sent within Vetrya emerges as equally significant in which we read 'By tomorrow evening we will try to have an amount to transfer to Zuco'”.
And again the Milan Financial Police reports further critical elements in conversations in which Zuco “for personal interests not otherwise justifiable in the exercise of his public functions managed – at a technological level – again by Vetrya, got the better of the other (in violation of the very idea of a 'popular jury' to which the choice of the logo was exclusively delegated)”.
Pm: “Money and cars to bribe two former Foundation executives”
The search decree also refers to the appointment of Zuco. In WhatsApp conversations, which date back to November 2019, “Tomassini referred to his previous relationships with Novari (with whom he has long-standing relationships, ed.)”, sending his friend Zuco a screenshot of a conversation, in which “he already reported to have intervened in order to allow one's job placement in the soon-to-be-established Olympic organizing committee.
“Appointment which actually took place, through the intervention of Novari (CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation since 9 December 2019), in the role of technical director of digital services (Digital director) with a total compensation for Zuco of 857,732 euros from 2020 and 2022 and with the assignment of Smart cars, since November 2019, paid directly by Tomassini through Vetrya for the 'courtesies' done 'lately' (as Tomassini himself expresses himself in chat) and thus being invested by Novari, initially in fact and subsequently with formal delegation, to stipulate contracts and carry out assignments on behalf of the organization in the technological/digital sector”.
Foundation employees will be heard as texts
The Milan prosecutor's office is investigating the “choice of technological suppliers and sponsors” of the Milan-Cortina 2026 event and the “hiring of Foundation employees: in this regard, the acquisition of the relevant deeds and documents has been arranged as well as the hearing of some employees” – no current manager or employee of the Foundation is under investigation – “in their capacity as persons informed of the facts”.
The investigations launched by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Milan focused on the awarding of tenders regarding the digital and security of the IT infrastructures of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation following an alleged corrupt agreement between the entrepreneur Luca Tomassini, Vincenzo Novari and Massimiliano Zuco.
The first investigative reconstructions, we read in the note, lead to the hypothesis that the body, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, although it qualifies – by virtue of a primary law – as a “non-profit body operating under private law”, in reality has a substantially public nature, pursuing an aim of general interest, with members, resources and guarantees of the State and local authorities (Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Lombardy and Veneto Regions, Municipalities of Milan and Cortina d' Ampezzo, Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, Coni and Cip)”. Judicial police activities concern the provinces of Milan, Rome, Parma and Terni.
For the record, and for the protection of those under investigation, we would like to remind you that an accusation is not equivalent to a conviction, that the evidence is gathered in court and that the Italian judicial system still provides for three levels of judgement.
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