Three Tod’s spa managers are under investigation for gangmastering and the same company is registered under the law on the administrative responsibility of entities, in connection with the same crime, in an investigation by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office which in recent months, as it emerged in October, has led to a request for the administration of justice for the fashion giant for eliminating control in the production subcontract chain in Chinese factories.
Now Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari, as shown by a request to the investigative judge Domenico Santoro ban Tod’s from advertising its products for six monthsanticipated in the economic pages of Corriere della Sera, have identified not only the negligence of company managers but also malicious hypotheses.
In particular, the managers of the Diego Della Valle company, as stated in the investigative documents of the Carabinieri Labor Inspectorate Unit, did not take into account “in the slightest the results” of several “inspections” at Chinese factories – six in the provinces of Milan, Pavia, Macerata and Fermo – and “audits” of suppliers that “recognized various indicators of exploitation” of workers, regarding, among other things, working hours, wages, security and “worsening housing conditions”.
On October 8, it became known that in December 2024, Storari prosecutors had requested and obtained the administration of justice for five other luxury brands for negligent responsibility in negligence of gangmastering inspections at boarding factorieshas requested a similar provision from the Court’s Precautions Section for Tod’s. However, questions regarding territorial jurisdiction have arisen and the Court of Cassation (heard yesterday) must decide whether the preventive procedures can remain in Milan or should be transferred to Ancona.
However, in the meantime, prosecutors with a 144-page document have submitted a request for prohibition to the investigating judge and requested that Tod’s no longer advertise its products for six months. Judge Santoro must make a decision after a hearing scheduled for December 3. The request revealed that the company is now under investigation, as are its managers and executives Simone Bernardini, Mirko Bartoloni and Vittorio Mascioni, who, wrote the Prosecutor’s Office, would use “labor in exploitative conditions and take advantage of the need of Chinese citizens”, who worked in six factories for the production of mainly uniforms for the brand’s store employees, but also shoe uppers.
All alleged violations are tracked in the document, starting from “regulatory” working hours to “wages” below the threshold. And again about safety and cleanliness and then about “degrading” hostels. All this, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, in the company’s “full awareness” of the “conditions of exploitation”, also because those responsible for the brand ignored audits from external certification bodies that, between 2023 and this year, were responsible for “serious violations”.
“Our group is a group that is respected in the world, we make ethical values our flag. We are not those dirty people. Prosecutor Paolo Storari should come and see our company,” Diego Della Valle said in a press conference on October 10.
Tod’s noted, the Cassation Court yesterday rejected Dr. Paolo Storari. “In light of the new dispute regarding the same issue, the company is now calmly examining further material produced, with alarming timing, by Doctor Storari.”
About Tod’s case “Yesterday the Cassation Court rejected Doctor Paolo Storari’s application and appeal”who requested that territorial jurisdiction over preventive procedures, at the request of the administration of justice, remain in Milan, while the judges of first and second instance have established jurisdiction in Ancona. This was announced in a press release from the company itself.
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