Italian court bans police and minister from linking Corallo with Mafia

February 11, 2014 7:50 AM
PHILIPSBURG - The Italian Court of Appeals has forbidden the Police and the Ministry of Interior Affairs in that country from linking Atlantis World Group owner Francesco Corallo with the mafia.
 
A press release issued by BPlus Giocolegale on Monday said the Italian Court of Appeals of Rome has forbidden the Italian Minister of Interior Affairs and the DIA (the Italian equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) from linking Corallo to the mafia. BPlus is a company owned by Corallo, which is involved in the entertainment and gambling industry worldwide. Corallo is also owner of the Atlantis World Group, which operates casinos in St. Maarten and Curaçao.
 
"Furthermore, the Court has ordered the publication of this ruling in the main Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the deletion of any relevant references that the DIA police may have in their reports on this matter," it was stated in the press release sent to this newspaper by Atlantis World spokesman Rudolf Baetsen.
 
Corallo's lawyers said this judgment, which "de facto prohibits anybody to refer to Corallo as a subject close to or part of the mafia is of utmost importance. This opens the doors to several lawsuits against a number of parties that have linked Corallo to the mafia in the past."
 
Corallo has been making headlines for different issues over the years. A magistrate of the Court in Rome established late last year that Corallo had not lied about his diplomatic immunity according to a press release issued by BPlus in January.
 
During a raid of the Guardia di Finanze in Milan on November 10, 2011, in connection with an investigation into loans granted by Banco Popolare di Milano (BPM) to Corallo, the businessman showed a diplomatic passport of the Republic of Dominica, which provided him immunity. Corallo said he was Dominica's ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
 
The Prosecutor's Office in Italy, however, charged him with providing false statements. The Italian Court has since acquitted Corallo of this charge. After the raid, Corallo voluntarily renounced his diplomatic immunity in order not to thwart the investigations.
 
On August 4, 2013, he voluntarily turned himself in to the Italian authorities to be able to answer questions posed by Prosecutor Roberto Pellicano in Milan in connection with alleged irregularities at BPM and Corallo's involvement therein.
 
In May 2012, the Prosecutor's Office in Milan had already requested Corallo's preliminary detention in connection with illegal financing operations at BPM, which was led at the time by Massimo Ponzellini.
 
Ponzellini was put under house arrest on May 29, 2012, under the suspicion of providing a loan of approximately 150 million euros to Atlantis/BPlus for the purchase of new slot machines in exchange for an alleged bribe of more than one million euros.
 
In a letter of May 26, 2011, by the Dutch Embassy in Italy to then Prime Minister of Curaçao Gerrit Schotte, who had requested proof of good conduct because he wanted to appoint Corallo in a certain position, it was stated that Corallo was involved in the international drug trade and the Sicilian mafia and that he laundered money in St. Maarten. The information was obtained from the Italian police and intelligence service, the embassy stated.
 
Corallo demanded rectification because, according to him, that information was incorrect. The Dutch State was not required to correct the statement about the Italian-Dutch businessman. A judge in The Hague derived at the conclusion that the Dutch Ministries of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations and of Foreign Affairs had not acted illegitimately.
 
Atlantis World spokesman Rudolf Baetsen confirmed that the Court of Rome had ruled in Corallo's favour and that the Italian Prosecutor's accusation was unfounded.
 
"More importantly, as Corallo has always stated from the beginning, he cannot be blamed for anything more than being a successful businessman. All efforts made in recent years to harm him personally and professionally by no matter which accusation could not succeed because he could not be accused of any legal wrongdoings," Baetsen had stated at the time.
 

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