VENICE-Mayor Giorgio Orsoni insisted Friday he is innocent of charges linking him to an alleged bribery web surrounding the MOSE flood-protection system.

 Mr Orsoni is among 35 people arrested in the last few days in a large-scale investigation into alleged corruption with Consorzio Venezia Nuova, a group of private and government entities responsible for the protection of the Venetian lagoon, at its centre. The consortium includes the 5.5 bln-euro system of retractable flood barriers MOSE, to be completed in 2016 following major delays. Investigators claim that the Consorzio gave former Veneto governor Giancarlo Galan a bribe worth 800.000 euros together with 1 mln euros in annual salary through the hands of the former head of the consortium, and the so-called “grand puppeteer” of the bribery scheme, Giancarlo Mazzacurati, and Veneto infrastructure Concillor Renato Chisso, in 2005-2011.

 Mr Orsoni, who was put under house arrest on Wednesday, has been accused of accepting a bribery of 560.000 euros offered to him by the Consorzio during his 2010 campaign to be Venice mayor.

 “He made a series of very lucid statements in which he said he had nothing to do with the allegations," said Friday Daniele Grasso, Mr Orsoni’s lawyer. "We are confident that the case will be concluded quickly." Mr Grasso also said that his client’s arrest could have been avoided as “his position should be looked at in a different way, above all, because it is not related to the allegations against the other people in the investigation.”

 This week’s arrests come only a few weeks after those linked to another high-profile probe into corruption on contracts for Milan Expo 2015, and Venice prosecutors have already put around 100 people under investigation. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Thursday he will take decisive steps to revamp anti-corruption measures, also adding that politicians accused of graft should be investigated for “high treason.” At the end of the G7 summit in Brussels Mr Renzi said that although “the fact that Italian magistrates reveal cases of corruption” is seen as positive outside Italy, “the reality which emerges is that of a country in which there are rules, but they are not respected.”