Catania returns 45 million in assets to Padovani the slot machine king, judges deem confiscation illegitimate

Last Updated: October 10, 2024

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Catania, restituiti 45 milioni beni a Padovani il re slot machine, i giudici: «La confisca era illegittima»

The Court of Appeal of Catania has overturned the confiscation order of assets worth 45 million that was issued in 2014 by the Court of Caltanissetta against the entrepreneur Antonio Padovani, the so-called king of video poker, and his family members because he was believed to be involved in business with the mafia families of Gela. The judges have accepted the request for revocation submitted by his lawyers, Baldassarre Lauria and Laura Ancona, who have announced the sentence, which has become final as it was not appealed, explaining that according to the judges “the confiscation had no legal basis and was therefore illegitimate.”

“It is a decision,” say the two lawyers in a statement, “that constitutes an absolute precedent in the Italian jurisprudential landscape that is emerging in the wake of the Cavallotti brothers’ case that we introduced to the European Court of Human Rights, and which now sees the Italian government under accusation for relevant violations of the Convention. In our opinion, the confiscation could not have been ordered against Padovani in relation to the fact that the conduct carried out by him at that time did not pose a social danger. In fact,” argue lawyers Lauria and Ancona, “only in 2008, with the first security package, the crime of fictitious ownership, for which he was convicted, was included among the categories of social dangerousness. In other words, the new legislative framework could not have retroactive effect.”

“In fact,” underline the two lawyers of the entrepreneur, “Italian jurisprudence has always considered preventive measures to be unrelated to the constitutional values governing criminal law, a characteristic that has always been the subject of lively academic debate, now under the legality scrutiny of the European Court in the Cavallotti case, which risks determining a radical transformation of the entire anti-mafia code.

“Of course,” conclude lawyers Lauria and Ancona, “we will now activate the consequent compensatory procedures for the serious damage suffered by our clients from the freezing of their assets for over a decade.”