Tax fraud charges against the parent company of the brand which owns Carlos Checa's team in World Superbikes have been dropped.
Ceramica Althea had been investigated by the magistrate of the Tribunal of Viterbo, the enquiry regarding alleged commercial irregularity and the subsequent alleged INPS and tax fraud. The ruling clears the company after six months of finger-pointing but boss Genesio Bevilacqua says he will now hunt down the people responsible for starting what he describes as defamatory rumours.
"I don't know whether to be pleased or upset with this outcome. On the one hand, it serves to restore tranquility to all Althea-branded structures, but I am at the same time saddened to think that any entity or individual that harbors untoward feelings, also for personal reasons, can create such damage, affecting companies, families and the related job posts. The media clamour that resulted was not supported by any valid documentation or proof that could have permitted these newspapers and journalists to publish such disparaging articles, as we in fact saw them do," said Bevilacqua.
"I hope that, in the light of this affair, everyone realizes the true damage that defamatory accusations like this can cause to the integrity, image and economy of a company, putting at risk above all many families and their jobs, so precious in these current times. It is for this reason that we had no choice but to take action against such slander, and with success. As a result of the significant damage caused, without any foundation, someone at this point must answer for this, legally-speaking, in accordance with the processes set out by our judicial system."
