Menarini Pharmaceutical Owners Convicted

The owners of Florence’s Menarini Pharmaceutical Corporation, Lucia and Alberto Aleotti, son and daughter of company president Alberto, have been convicted for fraud and tax evasion, receiving respective sentences of 10 years, 5 months and 7 years, 5 months. It was discovered that they set up fictitious off shore companies which, through a system of fake billing, inflated the prices of the company’s pharmaceutical products, which were ultimately acquired by the national Italian health care system with the exaggerated costs passed on to the taxpayer.

The siblings also had a secret bank account in Liechtenstein and it came to light that they exercised pressure on politicians to dissuade them from supporting the purchase of generic drugs by the health care system.  The Aleotti’s properties and bank accounts have been confiscated.  To read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.