Minister had links with Tanzi

A senior minister in Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet had business links with jailed Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi, selling one of his two engineering companies 18 months ago to a long-time business partner of Mr Tanzi, himself a school friend of the minister.
Pietro Lunardi, minister for public works, first transferred ownership of his two companies, Stone and Rocksoil, to family members to attempt to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest. Stone was then sold on June 18 2002 to Ettore Giugovaz, an Italian businessman based in Ecuador who had an office and secretary at Parmalat's Milan offices until a few months ago.
Mr Giugovaz was with Mr Tanzi before Christmas when Mr Tanzi flew to Ecuador, where investigators say he may have hidden assets.
Mr Giugovaz is also a key executive of Bonatti, a Parma-based construction company in which Mr Tanzi has a 27 per cent stake. Bonatti, whose website says it has subsidiaries in Ecuador and the UK, yesterday removed financial statements from the website. According to chamber of commerce documents, however, it had revenues of €224m ($278m) in 2002.
Information of the sale of Stone, documented in Cerved, the Italian chambers of commerce database and first reported on Saturday by newspaper La Repubblica, does not implicate the minister in any wrongdoing.
However, it lifts the veil on the widespread links that Mr Tanzi and associates are believed to have had both with politicians within the centre-right coalition of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and with members of the opposition.
Mr Tanzi and Mr Lunardi were primary school friends in Parma who never severed their ties. Mr Lunardi was regularly seen at the few large parties that Mr Tanzi hosted at his villa, and he occasionally joined Mr Tanzi on one of his two yachts,
people familiar with the Tanzi family said.
Mr Lunardi last month said of the scandal: "I still cannot believe this. When 1 read the news, I feel as if I've woken up from a bad dream."
Stone had revenues of €4.5m in 2002 and a net profit of €119,249, according to Cerved. Mr Giugovaz acquired 95 per cent. Paolo Francesco Lazzati, a well-known accountant, acquired the remainder. Neither was available for comment.
A spokeswoman for Lunardi confirmed the transaction.
Mr Tanzi is documented as having given €220,000 to Mr Berlusconi's Forza 11 party during the 2001 election campaign.
After Mr Berlusconi's election victory in 2001, Parmalat shifted a Iarge amount of its advertising over to Mr Berlusconi's television network from state-owned RAI. Other companies did likewise, according to Nielsen, a media research company.