Source: Daily Mail Source: thelocal.it
Firenze – 11 September 2014
Guccio Gucci, the great grandson of the founder of Gucci is currently under house arrest at his home in Firenze on charges of fraudulent bankruptcy.
The allegations arise following Signor Gucci filing for bankruptcy for his company Esperienze Srl, the creator of the “To Be G” hand bag range, in December 2013. Signor Gucci is accused of diverting some 800,000 Euro of cash and assets from the company to meet his personal debts prior to filing for bankruptcy. He also faces charges of fraudulent tax evasion totalling 400,000 Euro.
According to Italian authorities the assets were transferred to a new company with its head office in Perugia also run by Gucci and his co-conspirator, Sergio Moroni, the Chief Legal Officer of Esperienze Srl. Signor Moroni has also been charged.
In securing the arrest warrant Prosecutor Christine Von Borries said that Signor Gucci, acting with another conspirator “emptied the coffers of the company so as to render debt collection by the Italian Inland Revenue of 386,000 euros for the years 2007-12 impossible.”
In determining to order the arrest of Signor Gucci the investigating magistrate is reported to have said “We are not looking at the classic example of problems of a company that has failed because of the crisis. The operation was a complex one and was designed almost entirely to pay off some debts.’
To date the Italian authorities have recovered 400,000 Euros.
Under Italian Criminal Law directors and officers of bankrupt companies can be punished with imprisonment from 3 to 10 years if they are found to have committed a crime associated with fraudulent bankruptcy including diversion, concealment…or dissipation of all or part of the company’s assets. An essential precondition for the criminal liability is an intention to direct the company’s assets to a different destination from the company’s corporate purposes and to have the creditors of the company.
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