La storia poco chiara dell'Hotel du Louvre - DENEGATA JUSTITIA

In the Nineties I was contacted by a client and longstanding friend in Rome, for a group of entrepreneurs interested in a hotel activity in the Principality of Monaco. He introduced me to the brothers Settimio and Pacifico Nepi at their prestigious office in Via Nazionale in Rome. Known in Rome as wealthy traders, they had various shops in Italy. After several meetings in Rome and in Monaco and the exchange of various information about the hotel activity – as well as Hotel du Louvre, various other hotels had been, or were in the process of being purchased, such as Hotel Leon d’Oro, Hotel Catullo in Verona, Hotel Garden in Castelgandolfo, Hotel Fauché in Milan, the Grand Hotel Federico II in Bari, Hotel Gold in Vicenza, Hotel Polo Beach and Casino in Saint Martin – and on the basis of such introductions , I accepted the professional assignment, and predisposed the contacts and proceedings to follow. On 29 April 1991 the companies SKY FIN Sci and Hotel du Louvre Scs had been incorporated at the office of Notary Paul Louis Aureglia in Monaco. The SKI FIN Sci would have become owner of the property and the Hotel du Louvre Company scs would have performed the hotel activity. I was very impressed by the people who took part at the notaries act, and the way it was done; the whole staff of the brothers Di Nepi, lawyers, business consultants, managers, who arrived by Settimio Di Nepi’s personal plane. There was also the director of the Transatlantique bank in Monaco, J. Alcabez and his assistant G. Sarno. With great deference they brought personally two cheques whose amount was of 55 million French francs to give to the trader Roman Glibert ( ex President of the hotel union in Monaco). Nothing gave me any premonition of what would happened in the following years.

In 1993 the first symptom that something was happening, even if Di Nepi’s various commercial and hotel activities were working intensely. But the massive quantity of bank debts was heavily eroding the budgets. In March 1993 there were the first reminders for payment of various expiry loans which were never paid. In fact the B.T.M. ( Banque Transatlantique de Monaco) even though it held Settimio’s Di Nepi personal guaranty, froze the manager’s account , although he had nothing to do with the activity. On the basis of these facts, as there were no solutions, after several meetings and judicial decrees against the brothers Di Nepi, they sold out the shares of Hotel du Louvre Scs and so they were removed from management. They were only owners of the SKY FIN Sci which was holder of the property. A new lease of many years had been drawn up to get back the investments and to pay the debts they had incurred (see: Arc. Curau). After May 1993 the Hotel became a family business, after negotiations with the General Bank du Commerce in Paris to get back the activity, but at the real commercial value of that moment and not at the absurd value of 10 million French francs. In the meantime, as conditions and structures of the hotel were precarious, reconstruction and modernization works had been done, to become worthy of the 3 stars category it was in. In Rome the judiciary had opened an inquire against the brothers Di Nepi, the rest of the story was a judicial event, it’s sufficient to read it on the afferent links.

In the course of this tragic year, the Hotel was also closed following an Ordonnance on 6 June 1867!!! It was a temporary closure as the rules of hygiene were not respected, with the intention of reopening it after an appropriate verification. As I couldn’t get direct news about the facts, I was perplexed. Only after a while I learnt that the closure had come about following complaint made by the tourism office: according to the procedure the hotel was closed. It was maybe for a technical problem of structures, or for bad handling of staff that cleaned rooms; they were easy matters to resolve, but it was the reason chosen by the director to close down the activity.

"Constaté l'état de cessation des paiements et prononcé avec toutes conséquences de droit la liquidation des biens de la société en commandite simple Giovanni LAMBIASE et Cie ayant exercé le commerce sous l'enseigne HÔTEL DU LOUVRE, dont le siège social était sis 16, boulevard des Moulins à Monaco et de son gérant commandité Giovanni LAMBIASE.
Fixé provisoirement la date de cette cessation des paiements au ler octobre 2001.
Nommé Mme Stéphanie VIKSTRÖM, Juge suppléant au Tribunal de Première Instance, en qualité de Juge-Commissaire.
Désigné M. André GARINO, expert-comptable, en qualité de syndic.
Pour extrait conforme délivré en application de l'article 415 du Code de Commerce.
Monaco, le 31 janvier 2002."

So the hotel activity stopped, passing from administrative interruption to the complete cessation of the activity, allowing for the manager’s « escape » but not according to civil and law-abiding norms. As « without saying goodbye » he made a very well planned escape, without paying anybody, withdrawing the activity’s liquidity, retrieving some of the hotel’s goods, everything of course to his benefit. He moved to Val d’Aosta helped by a common false friend there.

The Judge ordered the liquidator Garino to suspend the liquidation process. It’s obvious that there was something unclear. In fact confirmation of the « two weights and two measures » was clear. According to some declarations, there were no means and documents to verify accounts. Even about my case which was very particular, there was no verification at the banks in Monaco to find important elements. Behind such strange proceeding there was the clear will not to publicize to avoid letting too much be known about the « not declared bankruptcy » and about the « omission of penal actions ».

As regarding this case, one spontaneously wonders what there is behind these events, here follows a synthetic and historical analysis of facts

The group Di Nepi, thanks to banking help, obtained a loan for the amount of 55 million French francs, which was guaranteed from mortgages on property for 45 million French francs, and for the commercial start up for 10 million French francs.

Loan instalments were never paid; the Di Nepi group began to decline, and on 8 April 2003 there was sentencing.

They were expelled from S.c.s Hotel du Louvre, creating a rental contract of many years for pay-back of the made investments. The rent will be used to pay Architect CURAU’s fees, for the reconstruction of the property, never made, for the amount of 1,852,484 French francs.

They had made contacts with the Banque Generale du Commerce in Paris to buy the commercial start up at the real commercial value at that moment, considering the effective hotel capacity of 33 rooms to entirely reconstruct.

The S.c.i. Louvre, represented by Frederic Sangiorgio, took of the entire Di Nepi group, and became owner of the hotel and of the commercial start up.

In 2000 some contacts began for the rent contract rescission and for payment of 10 million French francs. Such amount was decided according to the remaining duration of the loan and to the average of the net profit.

In 2001 the S.c.s. Hotel du Louvre’s activity was interrupted for hygienic reasons and after its manager’s escape, it went into liquidation, and on 12 June 2003 such proceedings were interrupted towards the manager who had withdrawn 1,310,000 French francs from banks ( see bank statements C.F.M.and B.N.P. not found or voluntary omitted), the cash balance, goods, and activity materials. Even the credit side hasn’t been got back (who knows why?) and no proceedings was made to establish responsibility. Bankruptcy and fraudulent bankruptcy were not declared. It’s also the case to say that he escaped to Val d’Aosta with the cash desk. It’s obvious that something strange is at work in such proceedings. But the height of irony is “the biter was bitten” ! When he was in Val d’Aosta he sought his fortune buying company shares of Casa della Sposa Srl for a nominal value of Euro 4,680,00 and shares of CORDISCO Srl for a value of 2,000.00 effectively paying 600 million Lire ! It was a real deal for the seller (by a euphemism of the Italian language it should be defined in a different way) who was able to cheat him. In fact he put the Casa della Sposa Srl into liquidation, for obvious reasons, to make the activity vanish, and about CORDISCO Srl there are only fields, pastures and ruins. A really inglorious end becoming an “entrepreneur” in Val d’Aosta.