FIGC Head Gabriele Gravina Under Investigation for Alleged Money Laundering

Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), is under investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome for alleged money laundering. Gravina was formally added to a register following accusations of ‘self-money laundering’, which had been requested by Gravina himself to “clarify his position.” Italian news agency ANSA report that the meeting with the investigators, lasting about an hour, took place within the framework of an investigation initiated at the behest of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate into alleged illicit activities carried out by Gravina.

“In light of the intolerable instrumentalizations and distortions of the truth of the facts that have implicated him in recent days, despite not being formally under investigation, Gravina has requested to be heard to clarify his position and the circumstances of which he has been a victim,” stated lawyers Leo Mercurio and Fabio Viglione. The transcript of the interrogation will thus be included in the proceedings in which the investigating authorities must piece together a series of clues and unravel certain knots. However, Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi has scheduled a meeting with the heads of the proceedings to outline a sort of ‘road map’ of the steps to be taken.

The subject of the investigation concerns various aspects of alleged irregularities: from the assignment of the 2018 tender for the channel of the Lega Pro football league to Isg Ginko, to the failed sale of a collection of antique books in Gravina’s possession, as well as the purchase of an apartment in Milan by the head of the Football Federation. This last aspect of the file will be carefully evaluated by the investigators regarding territorial jurisdiction and a possible transfer of the proceedings to the Milan prosecutor’s office.

A schedule for possible further hearings or summonses has not yet been established, and there are currently no planned meetings between the prosecutors in Rome and those in Perugia. In Perugia, financial officer Pasquale Striano and National Anti-Mafia Directorate prosecutor Antonio Laudati are under investigation for abuse of office and forgery. According to the Umbrian prosecutors, Striano allegedly received information about the assignment of the Lega Pro contract and then conducted a series of inquiries to gather further information on Gravina. The Umbrian investigators, after determining the unauthorized access by Striano, nevertheless considered the possibility of sending the documents to Rome to verify any wrongdoing, particularly Gravina’s role as president of the Lega Pro at the time of the events.