Mondomarine, prosecutors investigate on missing money.

The crisis of Mondomarine, one among the historic and most important groups of the shipbuilding industry, has seen another development in an investigation into the builder’s business operations. Yesterday morning, in Savona, engineer Giuseppe Dilorenzo, CEO of the society, appeared in court to answer the questions of public prosecutors Vincenzo Carusi and Ubaldo Pelosi. Prosecutors are investigating allegations related to bankruptcy, fraud, false account for the years 2014,2015 and 2016, abuse of credit stemming from invoicing for non-existent transactions and diversion of funds from company accounts.

Prosecutors haven’t revealed the content of the interrogatory and they have just confirmed that other key players related to the case will be questioned in the new few days, including Alessandro Falciai, the former Chairman of Mondomarine, and Roberto Zambrini, a minority shareholder of the company.

That the deep financial crisis of the shipyard had resulted into legal consequences became evident last week when prosecutors issued a warrant to search the shipyard’s offices in Milan, Savona and Pisa. The operation, carried out by the Italian fiscal police, led to the seizure of many documents relating to the company’s financial dealings. The searchers were instigated by complaints from Mondomarine‘s customers who claim to have been scammed by the shipyard which hasn’t completed the building of the luxury yachts for which they have paid a lot of money in advance.

According to the prosecutors, tens of millions of euros would have ended up into the suspects’ pockets.

The investigation carried out by the public prosecutor’s office of Savona complicates the terrible crisis which has overwhelmed the Savona-based business over the last few months. A terrible crisis which has obliged the shipyard to lay off 57 workers in the Savona-based shipyard  and 33 in the Pisa-based production site until next January 22nd.

The shadow of bankruptcy and resulting dismissals threatens Mondomarine and its destiny.

Meanwhile, while prosecutors keep on investigating and other key players of the company will be questioned in the new few days, on the industrial level something seems to get better thanks to the support of two companies. The first one is Palumbo Group Shipyard, which submitted a binding agreement to rent a Mondomarine’s branch for six months in the first step of a judicial liquidation and a commitment to provide business continuity – even though just 9 employers would be hired by the group.

The second one is the Varazze-based Alfa Shipyard which would be interested in acquiring the shipyard of Savona and therefore hire most of Mondomarine’s employers.

In short, while on the legal level clouds have inevitably got dark, some serious signs of solution seems to appear on the business one.