Milan, Friday
RAUL GARDINI, a flamboyant industralist and yachtsman who embodied
Italian business flair, killed himself today in the second suicide this
week of a top businessman tarnished by the country's corruption scandal.
Legal sources said Gardini, 60, former chairman of the Ferruzzi
food-to-chemicals group, was to have been arrested today, but it was not
clear if he was aware of his imminent arrest when he killed himself.
Gardini, was dead on arrival at a Milan hospital after shooting
himself in the head in his apartment in the city.
''Gardini was found with a bullet in his temple. The police forensic
department say it was a suicide,'' parliamentary spokesman Paolo Barile
told MPs.
He said Gardini had left behind a business card, apparently addressed
to his family, with the single word Grazie (thanks).
Gardini was the 10th person to commit suicide after becoming
implicated in the Italian corruption scandal which broke 18 months ago
in Milan.
This afternoon, magistrates issued arrest warrants for former
Montedison chief executive officer Carlo Sama and three other figures
closely associated with the Ferruzzi group.
All four are under investigation for alleged false accounting within
the Ferruzzi group.
Gardini's death coincided with the funeral of Gabriele Cagliari, the
former head of state energy giant ENI.
Cagliari committed suicide in Milan's San Vittore prison on Tuesday,
where he had been held for four months by magistrates investigating
corruption in the chemical industry.
In recent weeks, Gardini had become increasingly touched by the
corruption scandal as magistrates turned their attention to Enimont, a
former joint venture between state energy group ENI and Ferruzzi's
Montedison operating company.
In Rome, MPs demanded a full debate on the death of the silver-haired
yachtsman who helped turn Ferruzzi from a family grains firm into an
international giant and headed Italy's 1992 bid for the Americas Cup
yachting trophy.--Reuter.
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