The Milan prosecutor’s office has asked for a sentence of one year and eight months for Chiara Ferragni in the trial over Balocco pandori and Dolci Preziosi Easter eggs, in which she is accused along with two others of gross fraud. Based on these allegations, between 2021 and 2022 Ferragni carried out a misleading promotional campaign by donating part of the money from sales of its products to charity. The prosecutor’s office also asked for the same sentence for Fabio Damato, Ferragni’s former collaborator, and one year for Francesco Cannillo, president of the group that owns Dolci Preziosi. Also accused with them is Alessandra Balocco, president and CEO of the company of the same name, who died in August.
The trial has not yet concluded, and is taking place using an abbreviated procedure: meaning that the defendants have been excused from the trial stage, and if there is a guilty verdict, their sentences will be reduced by a third. Ferragni’s defense will speak at the next hearing, then the Milan court will make its decision. In the courtroom, Ferragni wanted to speak spontaneously and say that everything he did was done in good faith. Considering the crimes he was accused of, the requested sentence was not too harsh: serious fraud involves 1 to 5 years in prison.
Prosecutors stated that the promotional campaign led the public to believe that the sale of each pandoro was donated to charitable donations, when in fact the amount of the donation was predetermined by Balocco, regardless of the sales. Ferragni and Balocco have been fined 1.4 million euros by Antitrust. For the same reasons, Antitrust has also initiated an investigation into Dolci Preziosi’s Easter egg promotion, which in that case ended with a charitable donation by Ferragni and the company of 1.3 million euros. According to the prosecutor’s office, Ferragni would have gained an unfair advantage of around 2.2 million euros.
