Juve, the criminal front: the situation between the preliminary hearing and the Cassation

With the 718,000 euro fine for the “salary line” added to the 10 penalty points for the “capital gains line”, the line of Italian sports justice has run out, but the open fronts for Juventus are thinning out . There is of course the ongoing investigation by UEFA, expected to reach a verdict within the month of June, but in the background there is also the longest game, the one in court for developments on the criminal front of the Prisma investigation, which concerns the Juventus but above all its former managers.

THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

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Summary of the previous episodes: on 24 October, the Turin prosecutor’s office served notice of the conclusion of the investigations into Juventus and 15 suspects, including the top management of the Juventus club. A work that on 1 December resulted in the request for indictment for the club as a legal entity and for 12 managers: Andrea Agnelli, Pavel Nedved, Fabio Paratici, Marco Re, Stefano Bertola, Stefano Cerrato, Cesare Gabasio, Maurizio Arrivabene , Francesco Roncaglio, Enrico Vellano, Stefania Boschetti and Roberto Grossi. On the other hand, the former members of the board of statutory auditors Silvia Lirici, Nicoletta Paracchini and Paolo Piccatti emerged from the initial list of suspects.

THE PRELIMINARY HEARING

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At the preliminary hearing set for March 27, the investigating judge Marco Picco admitted the requests for summons for civil liability and adjourned the hearing to May 10. When the judge admitted Consob, Codacons, Movimento Consumatori and the Libyan fund Lafico as civil parties. The hearing in May closed with a new update, scheduled for 26 October next, pending the decision on territorial jurisdiction which the investigating judge sent back to the Court of Cassation.

TERRITORIAL COMPETENCE

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In fact, the defense immediately asked for the proceedings to be moved, arguing that the city where the disputed events took place (in this case the most serious offence, that of market manipulation), and therefore the competent court, is not Turin, but Milan as headquarters of the Stock Exchange, or alternatively Rome, where the servers used for communication are located. In case of movement, we start again from the start elsewhere. Without moving, the preliminary hearing resumes from October 26 to decide whether to go to trial, against whom, and whether anyone will choose alternative rites. Meanwhile, the ball is in the Cassation.