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The for­mer owner of the olive oil com­pany Valpesana, Francesco Fusi, was sen­tenced in Italy to four years in prison for com­mer­cial fraud and crim­i­nal con­spir­acy for sell­ing olive oils ​“obtained through illicit mix­ing with raw mate­ri­als of an infe­rior cat­e­gory or other geo­graph­i­cal origins.”

Italy’s Financial Police began the oper­a­tion in 2011, when the pros­e­cu­tor of Siena, Aldo Natalini, launched an inves­ti­ga­tion fol­low­ing a review of the com­pa­ny’s finan­cial records. Documents revealed fraud­u­lent prac­tices of blend­ing con­firmed by the court’s verdict.

In addi­tion to the stiff sen­tence handed down for Fusi, the com­pa­ny’s sales­per­son, Stefano De Gregorio, was sen­tenced to one year and 10 months; the admin­is­tra­tive direc­tor Paolo Vannoni and an admin­is­tra­tive employee, Lucia Sbaragli, were con­demned to 1 year and 8 months with sus­pended sen­tences; and employ­ees Paolo Alessi Innocenti and Alessandro Volpini received sen­tences of nine and five months, respectively. 

An offi­cer respon­si­ble for inspec­tion and sanc­tions tasks, Sergio Carbone, was acquit­ted of charges that he vio­lated pro­fes­sional secrecy. 

The court imposed an admin­is­tra­tive fine of €100,000 on the Monteriggioni (Siena) com­pany and the seizure of over €300,000 in assets. The defen­dants were ordered to com­pen­sate the plain­tiffs, the National Consortium of Olive Growers (CNO).

Acting as an inter­me­di­ary between pro­duc­ers and dis­trib­u­tors, Valpesana was found to have declared as 100 per­cent Italian extra vir­gin olive oil a deodor­ized mix­ture of vir­gin and lam­pante olive oils from Greece, Tunisia and Spain. The oper­a­tion was named ​‘Arbequino’ for the Spanish vari­ety found in the ille­gal mixture. 

The grounds for judg­ment must be filed within 90 days; mean­while, lawyers for the defen­dants have announced that they will appeal the court’s decision. 

“A stiff sen­tence like this is part of a trend in Italy towards actu­ally bring­ing oil crim­i­nals to court and giv­ing them pun­ish­ments with real bite,” inves­tiga­tive author Tom Mueller told Olive Oil Times about the judgment. 

“It’s great to see Italian leg­is­la­tors, pros­e­cu­tors and inves­ti­ga­tors enforc­ing qual­ity stan­dards in olive oil, and other foods. This sen­tence is proof that the ​‘Save Italian Olive Oil’ law of Colomba Mongiello, and the deter­mi­na­tion of pros­e­cu­tor Aldo Natalini and his inves­ti­ga­tors, is defend­ing con­sumers and the qual­ity of Italian cui­sine,” Mueller said.

“Why can’t food fraud be taken seri­ously, and pun­ished ade­quately, in the United States?” he added.

• Corriere Fiorentino — Corriede della Sera