Mezzacorona ‘strongly rejects’ charges after Feudo Arancio assets seized

Italian wine group Mezzacorona has rejected claims of involvement with the Mafia after authorities in Trento seized assets belonging to its Sicilian winery Feudo Arancio worth €70 million.

Authorities in Trento seized 900 hectares of vineyards and buildings in the provinces of Agrigento and Ragusa belonging Feudo Arancio last Friday (20 March) as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering and involvement with Mafia group Cosa Nostra.

According to reports by local media, authorities are conducting an inquiry, sanctioned by the Court of Trento, into four people involved with Mezzacorona including the current president Luca Rigotti and former CEO Fabio Rizzoli.

It is part of a wider investigation examining two vineyard transactions carried out in the 2000s and the alleged “infiltration of organised crime into the Trentino economy”.

In a statement, Gruppo Mezzacorona refutes the charges, stating that the company has “total non-involvement…with mafia connections and activities in Sicily” and that it has always “acted correctly and seriously in its entrepreneurial commitment to protect its members, shareholders and personnel”.

The statement continued: “We reiterate that [the investigation] concerns the preventive sequestration of two Sicilian companies. Both companies remain fully operational. Consequently, all the operations in the vineyards and the commercial activities of Feudo Arancio continue as normal. Gruppo Mezzacorona asks the judicial authority with the utmost swiftness that clarity be made as quickly as possible.

“We are confident that we will manage to demonstrate complete innocence to the disputed facts and to confirm the seriousness, professionalism and honesty of Gruppo Mezzacorona, qualities that have always distinguished our company in 116 years of history, serving and protecting the income and work of its 1,600 members, 480 shareholders and 500 employees.

“Any other allegation or speculation is false and Gruppo Mezzacorona cautions anyone to publish or disclose untruthful information and reserves the right to protect its image and reputation in the appropriate court.”