Word: gardini
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That made 12 suicides among the targets of Italy's 18-month investigation into fraud, kickbacks and political payoffs. Gardini's name surfaced over and over, as investigators probed a sweet deal in which his firm's share of a joint venture, called Enimont, with the state energy company was bought out for $2.5 billion, vastly more than it was worth. Last week investigators questioning two former Gardini executives reportedly learned that more than $90 million in payoffs may have landed in the pockets of leading politicians, including two former Prime Ministers, who denied the accusations...
Even so, prosecutors may never know the full story, because Gardini could have taken many of the secrets of Enimont to the grave. Nor will they get much help from the other major party to the scheme, Gabriele Cagliari, the former head of Italy's huge energy conglomerate ENI. Just three days before Gardini's death, Cagliari chose to tie a plastic bag over his head with a shoelace before telling investigators all he knew. Prosecutors believe that Gardini and his associates were responsible for the falsification of company books and sophisticated financial fraud, besides the payment of millions...
What a difference a year makes: Gardini reached the peak of his fame only last spring, when his racing yacht, Il Moro di Venezia, defied sailing experts and reached the finals in the America's Cup. Il Moro's success cast Gardini as the personification of Italian style, an image especially sweet for a man whose childhood on a farm in Ravenna earned him the lifelong nickname "il contadino," the peasant...
...Gardini's upbringing led him to agricultural college; afterward he joined the firm of Ravenna grain dealer Serafino Ferruzzi. His charm, ambition and business flair brought him rapid promotion -- as well as marriage in 1957 to the boss's eldest daughter, Idina, which guaranteed that he would inherit company leadership from Ferruzzi, who died...
...Gardini's financial success during the 1980s mirrored that of Italy's. His roll-the-dice executive style suited the spirit of his times: in 1987 Gardini won control, after a nearly $2 billion buyout, of Montedison, a chemical and pharmaceutical giant, transforming a prosperous family concern into Italy's second largest private company after Fiat...