VARESE – “A trial that arises from nothing and leads to nothing.” A “film that was never written.” This is how the defense lawyers Monica Andreetti and Giuseppe Cannella summarized the conclusion of a legal case related to charges of usury and extortion against three defendants, who were acquitted by the Varese Court today, December 21, over ten years after the events took place, which occurred in Varese, Comerio, and Castronno. A dated affair, but one that perhaps could have truly inspired a film due to its origin and development.
The wealthy entrepreneur
It all started with the financial difficulties of the man who later became the victim in the proceedings. To make ends meet, he turned to a wealthy Swiss entrepreneur, whom he had met through his wife, asking for a loan. Approximately 30,000 euros, which the man was supposed to repay within a month, but then established a “repayment plan” by signing 29 one-thousand euro bills.
The creditors
When the entrepreneur realized that the money was not coming back easily, he decided to transfer the debt to three of his collaborators. A sort of gift that, however, became the cause of trouble and the accusations of extortion and usury against the three for the methods they allegedly used to collect the money, with interest.
The prosecutor’s requests
This is the summary of the story, which, in any case, “arises in an unclear context,” emphasized the prosecutor in his closing arguments, which is why he first requested the acquittal of two of the three defendants, due to doubts that emerged during the trial regarding their actual awareness of the plan put in place to extort the money from the victim, making him fear the worst through threats. In the end, the prosecutor requested only one conviction, for 5 years and 6 months of imprisonment, for the man considered the instigator of the extortion. The charge was reclassified by the judges as “abusive exercise of one’s rights” and fell through due to the statute of limitations.
The defenses
Before the verdict, the defendants’ lawyers rejected the usury thesis, which later fell through because “the fact does not exist,” citing the interest rates in effect at the time of the events. The defense lawyers also focused on the victim’s behavior, who had met two of the defendants several times outside an Autogrill in Castronno, in order to settle part of the debt and allegedly returning approximately 12,000 euros. A person described as a “chronic debtor,” due to his past, by attorney Marco Mainetti, who represented the defense along with the aforementioned colleagues Andreetti and Cannella, and who specified that the man “did not turn to a bank to obtain a loan, as any person would do, but tried to obtain the money through other means.” Thus, coming into contact with the wealthy entrepreneur.
Varese Usury Acquittals – MALPENSA24
