WSBK: The main sponsor of Team Pedercini worried by the Justice

In 2019, Jordi Torres ranked eleventh in the Superbike World Championship for the Pedercini team, whileAyrton Badovini finished tenth and Kyle Smith fifteenth in the Supersport World Championship. This year, Pedercini wanted to enter two riders in each of the SSP300, Supersport and Superbike categories, with Global Service Solution as the main sponsor, like last year. Now everything is becoming more fragile, even if Lucio Pedercini has not yet confirmed the rumors of his team's withdrawal and is clinging to hope: “I can't say much at the moment because there is news every day. It will only be when the situation is clear that I will be able to give precise information. »

What happened to Italian justice to get to this point?

In mid-December, soldiers from the provincial command of the “Guardia di Finanza” of Rome executed an order for the application of precautionary measures, issued by the Capitoline Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome, against four people, including the businessman Pietro Mazzoni (born in 1961), held responsible for bankruptcy and tax crimes.

The investigations, carried out by the Economic and Financial Police Unit, stem from the bankruptcy, declared at the end of 2016, of the company “Nuove telecomunicazioni Spa”, operating in the field of design and construction of telecommunications infrastructure. At the time of the bankruptcy, the company had accumulated debts to the tax authorities of more than 60 million euros, an amount which constitutes almost the entire assessed liability, or approximately 67,6 million euros.

Investigations revealed that by registering a de facto non-existent debt, the company's insolvency was first concealed, then, through an operation to split the company carried out shortly before the bankruptcy, it was deprived of its only revenue-generating branch. The latter was transferred to a new company thanks to which Mazzoni was able to continue the same activity without the “weight” of debts accumulated over time. Thanks to the aforementioned split, the new legal entity benefited from a significant portfolio of contracts, worth approximately 47 million euros, with the most important national and international companies in the telecommunications sector, as well as certifications necessary to participate in the award of public works.

The pre-existing company, on the other hand, emptied of all assets, was abandoned to inevitable financial collapse, depriving creditors of any security over the assets. The judge of the preliminary investigations, emphasizing that "the conduct of the bankruptcy by the suspects cannot be considered sporadic and occasional", ordered the preventive detention in prison of Pietro Mazzoni, de facto director of the bankruptcy, house arrest of Gianluigi Leveratto (born in 1954), director of corporate law, the measure of forfeiture of the ban on exercising management functions of legal entities for 12 months against Mazzoni's mother, Elvira Fanelli (born in 1938), and Roberto Colombo (born 1958), both law directors pro tempore.

In addition, the judge of the preliminary investigations ordered the preventive seizure for the equivalent of goods and buildings up to an amount of more than 14 million euros, equal to the taxes not paid by the company in the last years before the declaration of bankruptcy because the mid-December operation is part of "as part of the activities carried out by the Guardia di Finanza to protect the community against the serious damage caused to the economic system by individuals who operate in the market in an unscrupulous manner, distorting fair competition and subtracting revenue from the FISC administration. »

Response from interested parties:

Concerning Roberto Colombo, President of Global Service Solution, whose name was involved in the investigation relating to New Telecommunications, carried out by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, according to Roberto Perego, the communications manager of the company Global Service Solution , “The story involving Dr. Colombo is closed and therefore should not affect Global Service Solution, nor plans for next season. Regarding 2020, I would like to emphasize that we are at an impasse and therefore the programs have not yet been defined. Unfortunately, operations were slowed down by a difficulty which arose between the parties. However, we are working to ensure maximum commitment in World Superbike and in the coming days we will communicate our plans. »