Thirty-nine under investigation, including the rector Luigi Dei and dozens of barons of the Florentine university and also of other universities. And very heavy accusations, such as criminal association aimed at abuse of office and corruption.
Searches and kidnappings were triggered yesterday morning by order of the Public Prosecutor of Florence during an investigation into an alleged system that for years would have polluted the process for the assignment of chairs and competitions in the medical faculty. The investigations, covered by the utmost secrecy, seem destined to shake Tuscan healthcare from its foundations. The series of “excellent” names was very long: in addition to the rector, assisted by the lawyer Sigfrido Fenyes, also the general manager of Meyer Alberto Zanobini, the former and current general manager of Careggi, Monica Calamai e Rocco Damone.
Florence, rigged competitions at the university, 39 under investigation: there is also the rector for “criminal association”.
by Luca Serranò, Andrea Bulleri
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On the register of suspects also other prominent figures of Tuscan health such as the former Vice Rector Paolo Bechi (now retired), the director of the oncology department and head of oncological urology, Marco Carini, the director of the department of experimental and clinical medicine of the University of Florence Corrado Poggesi and professor Niccolò Marchionni, director of the cardiovascular and primary department of Careggi cardiology. An earthquake.
“All documentation deemed useful has been acquired by the judicial authority – declares the rector, who yesterday morning underwent searches both in the office in Piazza San Marco and in his home – for any appropriate evaluation. I am calm and confident that every event can be clarified “.
I am serene because I have always worked for the good of Meyer – says Zanobini, defended by the lawyer Filippo Cei – I will continue to do so with determination, all the more so now, in this pandemic phase, which is also difficult for our hospital “,
According to prosecutors Luca Tescaroli and Antonino Nastasi, several competitions would have been piloted according to a scheme that provided for reciprocal favors without taking into account merit and curriculum. The main role, according to the first reconstructions, was played by an alleged center of power made up of seven people, all accused of having taken part in a criminal association responsible for “an indeterminate series of crimes of abuse of office”, and ” aimed at the preordained identification of the winners of public competitions for full professors, associates and researchers “. The associative crime is contested against Dei, Calamai, Damone, Carini, Poggesi, Marchionni and Bechi, all of whom have already been involved in previous investigations opened in recent years by the Florentine prosecutor, always on alleged competitions rigged to medicine. Corruption is contested for at least two episodes, related to anesthesia competition and for the chair of analytical chemistry. The events took place between 2018 and the first weeks of 2021, and were lined up with a long investigation by the economic and tax police unit of Finance, coordinated by the prosecutor of Giuseppe Creazzo. It is still not clear how many competitions have ended up in the crosshairs, but the number would be substantial; some of these, however, are linked to key roles in the Tuscan health system. On the one hand, the “barons” ended up under the investigators’ lens, who allegedly plotted to favor the selected candidates, on the other some members of the various examining commissions (several suspects belong to other universities) and the winners of the competitions themselves. In some cases, such as for the appointment as full professor of neurosurgery, the investigations concerned competitions not yet defined. The work of the Prosecutor and the Guardia di Finanza is now continuing on the material seized during the searches. The suspects are defended, among others, by the lawyers Gaetano Viciconte, Federico Bagattini, Lorenzo Zillletti and Mario Taddeucci Sassolini.
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