The well-known Italian winemaker Jacopo Biondi Santi is suspected by the public prosecutor in Siena of having evaded taxes. It has confiscated real estate and land in the Maremma as well as valuables worth around 4.8 million euros, the Ansa news agency reports.
At the end of 2016, the Biondi Santi family vineyard was sold to the French luxury group EPI due to financial difficulties. The public prosecutor's office is investigating the winemaker because he is said to have moved invoices between different companies in order to pay less tax. His lawyer, Enrico De Martino, told Ansa that the investigation is simply "a different interpretation of the laws governing invoices and commercial transactions". The tax authorities have not missed a single euro of taxes. The EPI group did not wish to comment on the case.
(uka)