(Rome) Italian prosecutors on Friday ordered the seizure of nearly 75 million euros ($113 million) from Ferrari and Stellantis chairman John Elkann and four others as part of an investigation into alleged tax fraud.
The famous dynasty behind the Fiat car empire, from which Stellantis emerged after the 2021 merger of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler, is divided by a bitter dispute over the family legacy.
Turin financial police said the order for the “preventive seizure of approximately 74.8 million euros (113.2 million CAD)” targeted John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann, as well as their accountant and a Swiss notary.
The dispute concerns the succession of Gianni Agnelli, the former boss of Fiat who died in 2003, and pits his daughter Margherita, who inherited 1.2 billion euros (1.8 billion CAD), against three of his eight children – John, Lapo and Ginevra.
Prosecutors have classified the alleged crimes as tax and inheritance fraud. In the seizure order, seen by AFP, they say they uncovered a conspiracy to falsely claim that Agnelli’s widow, Marella Caracciolo, was living in Switzerland when she was actually living in Italy.
Lawyers for Elkann’s siblings said she “has been living in Switzerland since the early 1970s.”
Furthermore, the seizure order “does not meet the legal requirements… because, among other things, there was never any risk of the suspects’ assets being dispersed,” they said in a statement.