Vita gazette – Chiara Ferragni is under investigation for aggravated fraud as part of the Milan Prosecutor’s Office investigation, which focuses on the case of the “Pink Christmas” pandoro produced by the Piedmontese company Balocco.

What was supposed to be a charity pandoro ended up costing Italy’s most famous influencer an investigation for aggravated fraud. The Milan Prosecutor’s Office entered Chiara Ferragni in the register of suspects on charges of aggravated fraud in the Balocco Pandoro case. She is also with Alessandra Balocco, president and CEO of the confectionery company.

In fact, for days, the Pink Christmas 2022 promotional campaign signed by Chiara Ferragni and Balocco has been in the sights of investigators and the Milan Financial Police. The project involved the sale of a pandoro with also the Ferragni brand, with part of the proceeds going to charity. In other words, it was implied from the advertising of those months that by purchasing Pandoro, customers would be able to support research into osteosarcoma and Ewing’s sarcoma to buy a new machine. According to the investigations of the competent authorities, however, it emerged that the sum to be donated to charity had already been allocated.

Attention to the Balocco pandoro case erupted after the first Antitrust investigations, which concluded with a fine of one million euros for Chiara Ferragni for misleading advertising. The investigators and the Guardia di Finanza soldiers then started their investigations, which will continue for months.

The first to notice this temporal inconsistency was the Antitrust Authority, underlining how the companies of the famous entrepreneur had earned more than a million euros from this Christmas project without contributing, in the way in which it had been communicated, to the promised solidarity cause. In the end, the pink icing sugar pandoro was sold at two and a half times the price of the normal pandoro, but everything had already been decided on the amount to be paid to charity. Ultimately, the Antitrust denounced the false advertising by imposing a fine of one million euros on the entrepreneur.

Once Pandora’s box has been opened

The Codacons Consumer Defense Association requested the intervention of the Guardia di Finanza, invoking aggravated fraud against consumers. The Fiamme Gialle began to investigate, taking all the Antitrust documentation. In the end, the magistrates opened a case for aggravated fraud without having any complaints on the table. The turning point of the Milan Prosecutor’s Office came after the emails between Chiara Ferragni and Balocco from 2021 onwards were analysed: Monday, 8 January, the financiers showed up at Balocco’s headquarters in Fossato, in the province of Cuneo, where they acquired the necessary papers. These emails would have corroborated the crime of aggravated fraud and triggered the criminal charge. In recent days, other prosecutor’s offices, after the numerous complaints from Codacons, had opened other files without any hypothesis of crime or suspects: now all the documents will be transmitted to Milan, the only prosecutor’s office to proceed with the case.

Codacons, class action for 1.6 million against Chiara Ferragni

A “collective action against Chiara Ferragni on behalf of all the parties injured by the alleged offences for which the judiciary is investigating, aimed at ensuring that consumers who purchased the Balocco ‘Pink Christmas’ pandoro obtain a refund of the increased sums paid”.

Codacons decided to launch it, the association from whose complaints “the pandoro-gate scandal was born and the subsequent investigation by the judiciary for aggravated fraud”.

With how many communication errors have been made in recent years

We now doubt past charities when we think about Chiara Ferragni’s situation. The Easter eggs were produced by Dolci Preziosi in collaboration with Chiara Ferragni, also in this case, for solidarity purposes. As well as the cases relating to the Trudi doll.

Another example was born in collaboration with Oreo biscuits for the “fight against COVID-19”, dating back to 2020.

All the actions of Ferragni and Family are now under the magnifying glass.

Together, we will see how many communication errors have occurred in the past.