While Tweety tries to stay afloat, his owners are about to sit on the bench.
The hundreds of police officers and civil guards displaced to Catalonia shortly before the 1-O referendum was held, who stayed for two months in the autumn of 2017 on ships belonging to the Italian shipping company Moby, must still remember the burned chicken and the poor quality of food in those days.
The "tweets", as they were popularly baptized by the cartoons that decorated the hull of those ships, complained about the poor conditions they suffered. Now what smells of burning is the management of the shipping company, which is going through a financial storm: it recently requested bankruptcy.
The company continues to operate, has income (more than 220 million) and has even achieved gross profits (more than 50 million) in the last available year (2022). And he has just commissioned the Moby Fantasy, a giant 237-meter-long ship built in China. But the recent management was disastrous. The high competition (particularly from Grimaldi) and the covid crisis made water in a company that owes more than 500 million.
The origin of the embezzlement stems from the privatization of the former state shipping company Tirrenia. In 2015, Moby took over it after a long award process, in which it had to resort to a considerable debt issue of 300 million, in addition to another 200 million loans to banks to finance the operation.
Added to this are the alleged diversions of funds by the managers and major shareholders, the Onorato family. As reported this week by the Milan Prosecutor's Office, the owner and president of Moby, Vincenzo Onorato and his children will be asked to prosecute for fraudulent bankruptcy. "Those investigated impoverished Moby's assets by depriving her of the current liquidity necessary to meet her financial obligations," the magistrates state in the order. Vincenzo Onorato is accused of receiving a salary (three million euros per year) that is incongruous "compared to the remuneration of companies of similar size that operate in the same sector", in addition to being "unreasonable" taking into account the results of the company.
The owner is also accused of having stolen money from the shipping company for his personal expenses. Like the purchase of a property in the center of Milan for seven million euros (two million more than the market price): formally it served as representation expenses for the shipping company, in reality it would be a maneuver to repay Vincenzo's personal debts with the banks. The same allegedly happened with a villa on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia: a 4.45 million operation for a villa for family vacations instead of a company meeting center. The Onoratos are also accused of disbursing 700,000 euros to renovate Vincenzo's mother's apartment (in charge of Moby), as well as renting luxury cars by the children: Aston Martin V8, Rolls Royce, Maserati , including 2.8 million to hire a private flight with a Falcon. The defense of the Onorato family must think that they are "going for them."
