I’m choosing to assume completely my responsibility, declared Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA chief Carlo De Benedetti, after delivering a 20-page document, detailing bribes paid by Olivetti over the last 15 years as political favours to the Mani Pulite Clean Hands – investigating judges in Milan on Sunday. In a one-hour face-to-face meeting with three judges and his lawyer Marco Deluca, which De Benedetti requested, the Italian industrialist made a 360-degree turn, recounting the bribes and illicit political connections Olivetti has supported since May 1978. I am assuming the responsibility for all of my co-workers, both for those things I was aware of and for those things that I discovered in the last few days since the name of Olivetti began circulating. After that, I decided without hesitation to present myself, he said. As recently as April 29 at Olivetti’s annual meeting, De Benedetti said, Olivetti has never provided financing to political parties or associated entities. And not a single functionary, manager or administrator has ever been involved in proceedings of this nature. De Benedetti explained his prevarication yesterday, saying: It did not seem to be the appropriate moment to clarify the position of the company on arguments that must first, by their nature, be illuminated and discussed in front of judicial authorities. It is not yet known exactly how much Olivetti paid out. De Benedetti cited a payment of approximately $7m to Giuseppe Lo Moro for a contract to equip the Italian state Postal Service. The ambiguous reference to contributions Olivetti paid to ASST (one of the state-owned telephone companies) has been clarified, confirming that Olivetti did not ever work with ASST, but paid Mr Giuseppe Lo Moro, who acted as collector for the political parties for equipping the Post. Olivetti paid, not the $6.3m indicated by Mr Moro, but $6.8m in four years, said the chairman in a two-page communique.
Mani Pulite
A report in the Italian journal La Stampa says sources close to the Mani Pulite investigators believe the Ivrea-based computer company paid a total of approximately $13m. Said the communique De Benedetti sent out by facsimile about an hour after his meeting with the judges, which the paper said seemed to be written in his own hand: Several times, I resisted the vexations of the regime, in some occasions I resigned myself to accept them, but only when I found myself faced with the necessity of defending the survival of the company and the thousands of dependents and shareholders toward whom I felt a massive responsibility. Now, thanks to the clean-up work finally undertaken by the guardians of the legal system, it has become possible to overcome the arrogance of the dominant infrastructure of bribery without compromising further the activities of the company. I believe it is my obligation and duty to contribute fully to the work of justice. The confessions add considerably to de Benedetti’s embarrassments, because he is already relying on the labyrinthine Italian judicial system of appeals, and the country’s statute of limitations to avoid the possibility of a jail sentence over his – fairly tenuous – involvement in the Banco Ambrosiano collapse. Observers are encouraged by the thoroughness with which the Italian judiciary is now pursuing corruption charges.
