The Local: In a ruling on Tuesday, the Court of Cassation recommended a “blanket” seizure of funds from the hard-right party’s bank accounts, deposits and other assets in connection with the fraud case against its founder Umberto Bossi, his son Renzo and ex-treasurer Francesco Belsito.
The three were convicted in July 2017 of embezzling hundreds of thousands of euros in public funds between 2008-10, and the party ordered to repay nearly €49 million in state financing that it had received during that period.
Since then €1.5 million of the League’s assets have been frozen, but the party succeeded in blocking an order by a lower court to confiscate the rest of the sum. That appeal was overturned by Italy’s highest court, however, after investigators found scant money in the League’s accounts and began to suspect that some of it may been shifted abroad to escape seizure.
Matteo Salvini has in the meantime asked for a meeting with the Italian President on the issue claiming that the move is an attack on democracy.
