Italian prosecutors on Friday ordered the seizure of nearly 75 million euros ($71 million) from Ferrari and Stellantis chairman John Elkann and four others as part of an investigation into alleged tax fraud.
The famous dynasty behind the Fiat car empire, from which Stellantis emerged after the 2021 merger of Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat-Chrysler, is divided by a bitter dispute over the family legacy.
Turin financial police said the order for the “preventive seizure of approximately 74.8 million euros” targeted John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann, as well as their accountant and a Swiss notary.
The dispute concerns the succession of the former Fiat boss who died in 2003, and pits Gianni Agnelli’s daughter Margherita – who inherited 1.2 billion euros – against her sons John and Lapo and her daughter Ginevra, three of the eight children she had.
Prosecutors have classified the alleged crimes as tax and inheritance fraud. In the seizure order seen by AFP, they say they uncovered a conspiracy to falsely claim that Agnelli’s widow, Marella Caracciolo, was living in Switzerland when she was actually living in Italy.
Lawyers for Elkann’s siblings said she “has been living in Switzerland since the early 1970s.” They also said the seizure order “does not meet the legal requirements, particularly because, among other things, there was never any risk that the suspects’ assets would be dispersed,” they said in a statement.
