ROME - Stefano Speroni, director of legal affairs at ‘supermajor’ oil company Eni, is under investigation for involvement in a criminal network which has been selling access to sensitive public databases.

 The Carabinieri of Varese, who are conducting the investigations, are concerned with an incident in January 2023 where Speroni allegedly paid 50,000 euros to have a private investigations company (‘Equalize’) prepare a damning report on Francesco Mazzagatti – a rival oil giant. However, prosecutors claim that within the report was cited data that could not have been accessed legally.

 The source of this ‘illegally obtained material’ is the point of interest for the prosecution. A report in June by the Varese Carabinieri revealed that in February 2023, a month after Speroni’s commission, Equalize had hosted two Israeli Intelligence officials at their offices in Milan. The report details that Samuele Caramucci and Vincenzo De Marzio (both also under investigation) struck up a data-swap deal with the Israeli Secret Service in which Equalize would share access to their national database, and in return Israel would transfer them information that could aid Speroni and his affiliated company Eni.

 Of course, all official statements from Eni have claimed they did not know about the illicit source of Equalize’s information. ‘Eni was not (and is not) aware of the alleged illegal activities attributed to Equalize in the context of the Milan Prosecutor’s investigation’, the company announced. Yet this is not enough to disassociate Speroni, who joins the ever-lengthening list of Italian entrepreneurs coming under investigation for involvement with this data-selling network. The prosecution alleges that the ring is led by Equalize’s owners, Carmine Gallo and Enrico Pazzali (who are both currently under house arrest).

 The concerns of Milan’s official investigation are also in the ‘institutional belt’ which ‘unwittingly surrounds the [criminal] organisation and generates a strong sense of impunity among its members’. That is, Gallo and Pazzali have benefited from their many connections with important individuals in the business world, which has somewhat protected them from juridical scrutiny. The prosecution can only fear which other important figures, like Speroni, may have drawn information from the illegal sources of Equalize.

 dabj