Chapter I.01 - Historical background

The story began with a client, Renato Mangione, introduced to me by Rag. Fausto Magnarelli’s office in Rome. The usual procedure was that new clients were accepted only if they were introduced by professionals, banks and only if they had good references.

After appropriate verification and through some details obtained thanks to his business consultant that he confirmed through certified signature we began a professional relationship. At the beginning the purpose was for fiscal planning through an English holding structure through which it was possible to get subscription fees of Italian companies which held real estate.

After this business deal which was the first one, which took place in November 1998, he asked for the foundation of a company to handle commissions, and so the DAISY Ltd was founded. It opened a bank account at the Credit Foncier in Monaco, and according to the normal procedure, all requested details about the owner and the activity had been given.

On 1 December 1998 an invoice was sent to W.M.O. ( World Meteorological Organisation), a structure of  United Nations, for the amount of $ 2,710,000 USA, regularly cashed on 10 December 1998 in the account n. 221 100 74466 M ; Mangione had been introduced “by telephone” to the bank for the opening of a personal account. According to Mangione’s instructions given per fax, the amount of $ 2,160,412 had been transferred on 14/12/98 and also $ 525.000 on 21/12/98. These sums should have been credited in the accounts n. 221 300 78654 V and 221 300 74510 R.

It was a common fees deal which had been distributed between those people who were owner. For such transaction Mangione paid Frf 59.000 as fees, and this amount was regularly invoiced by my office.

In April 1999 he came to my office for a fiduciary transaction to protect his patrimony for some problems in his family. He had $ 1,600,000 USA cash that he wanted to deposit in a fiduciary account for some real estate deals and to buy a yacht.  With the purpose of showing the derivation, he showed the cash withdrawal receipts at the Credit Foncier in Monaco, Compagnie Monégasque de Gestion and at the Compagnie Monégasque de Banque. In accordance with Sergio Casillo at the Banca del Gottardo, I explained the situation to him and gave him the bank documentation to justify the origin of the money and to get the right confirmation; the deposit took place for the next fiduciary deal.

This sums up business relationship we had, every step is proved and available in the office files, but everything had been manipulated during inquiry to build “their story” and to hide precise responsibilities, which already emerged during another inquiry.