Ex-Covid czar investigated for embezzlement

The official who led Italy’s initial response to coronavirus is under investigation for embezzlement and abuse of office related to the purchase of face masks from China, his spokesperson said Monday.

Rome prosecutors questioned Domenico Arcuri, the government’s coronavirus commissioner between March 2020 and March 2021, over the weekend, a statement from Arcuri’s office said.

He had long been asking to speak to prosecutors “to definitively shed light on what happened” and had been cooperative since the start of the investigation, it added.

The probe focuses on contracts Arcuri’s office signed with three Chinese consortiums for the supply of more than 800 million masks for 1.25 billion euros ($1.45 billion), at the outset of the pandemic in March and April 2020.

Prosecutors suspect the deals happened thanks to a group of Italian middlemen — including a former journalist described as a friend of Arcuri. They allegedly pocketed some 77 million euros in illegal commissions between them.

The journalist was constantly in touch with Arcuri while the deal was cut, say prosecutors. Italian media, quoting judicial sources, say the pair exchanged thousands of calls and messages between January and May 2020.

Italian media also reported Monday that police had ordered the seizure of the China-made masks, on the grounds that most of them did not comply with safety certifications and may be dangerous.

It was not clear how many of them were used and how many remained in storage.

Italy’s financial crimes police publicised the investigation in February, but did not name Arcuri as one of the suspects. At the time, Arcuri’s office said it had been a victim of the alleged scam.

Arcuri, 58, was one of the first officials to be fired by Prime Minister Mario Draghi after he took office in February with a mandate to accelerate Italy’s recovery from the pandemic and from the record recession it had triggered.

Draghi appointed an army logistics commander, General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, as pointman for the coronavirus crisis, while Arcuri kept his position as head of Invitalia, a government business investment agency.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. It has suffered more than 131,000 deaths from Covid-19, but infection rates have dropped in recent months thanks to a successful vaccination campaign.

Agence France-Presse

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