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Milan prosecutors on Tuesday sought a\u00a0prison\u00a0sentence of one year and eight months for Italian\u00a0social media influencer Chiara Ferragni in a case of alleged fraud involving the sale of charity Christmas cakes and Easter eggs.<\/p>\n
The Milan-based entrepreneur faces accusations\u00a0of aggravated fraud in relation to the ‘Pandorogate\u00a0case’\u00a0in which\u00a0she\u00a0is accused of profiting handsomely from charity drives involving the sale of a “designer” pandoro, produced by Balocco, and chocolate Easter eggs produced by Dolci Preziosi.<\/p>\n
Ferragni, 38, denies any wrongdoing and has vowed to prove her innocence, stating during the hearing on Tuesday that she had always acted in good faith, telling reporters outside the court:\u00a0“I am confident… I can’t add anything else.”<\/p>\n
The defence’s closing argument will be presented at the next session in the fast-track, closed-door hearing, on 19 December, and a verdict is expected in January.<\/p>\n
The crime of aggravated fraud in Italy carries\u00a0a prison sentence of between one and five years.<\/p>\n
Background to the case<\/strong><\/p>\n The prosecution claims that Ferragni misled consumers into thinking that their purchases of a pricey pandoro cake would help to fund medical equipment for a children’s hospital in Turin.<\/p>\n The pink\u00a0pandoro\u00a0went on sale in Italy\u00a0in 2022 with a price tag of \u20ac9, more than double the normal retail price of unbranded cakes made by confectioner Balocco.<\/p>\n In December 2023, Italy’s antitrust authority fined\u00a0Ferragni\u00a0more than \u20ac1 million for “unfair commericial practices” in relation to the branded pandoro.<\/p>\n The competition authority also handed a fine of \u20ac420,000 to Balocco which it found had made a one-off donation of \u20ac50,000 to the hospital months\u00a0in advance of the pandoro going on the market.<\/p>\n The authority also\u00a0found that two Ferragni-controlled companies received promotional fees of around \u20ac1 million, none of which\u00a0was\u00a0handed over to the children’s hospital.<\/p>\n At the time, Ferragni responded with an emotional video in which she apologised for the pandoro case, admitting to a “communication error” but claiming it was a “mistake made in good faith”.<\/p>\n In the wake of the controversy, Ferragni donated \u20ac1 million to the Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin and vowed to keep business and charity “completely separate” in the future.<\/p>\n Easter eggs<\/strong><\/p>\n A\u00a0similar case involving Ferragni-branded Easter eggs in support of I Bambini delle Fate, an association that helps children with autism, allegedly earned\u00a0the social media star far in excess of the amount that\u00a0was given\u00a0to the charitable cause.<\/p>\n After reaching an agreement with the antitrust authority, Ferragni paid the Bambini delle Fate association \u20ac1.2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February last year Ferragni split from\u00a0her rapper husband Fedez\u00a0after five years of marriage.<\/p>\n Photo credit: sama_ja – Shutterstock.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ferragni faces jail if found guilty of alleged fraud involving charity endorsement deals. Milan prosecutors on Tuesday sought a\u00a0prison\u00a0sentence of one year and eight months for Italian\u00a0social media influencer Chiara Ferragni in a case of alleged fraud involving the sale of charity Christmas cakes and Easter eggs. The Milan-based entrepreneur faces accusations\u00a0of aggravated fraud in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28935,235,3088,15515,12582,881,3132,28934],"class_list":["post-44198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-alleged","tag-chiara","tag-face","tag-ferragni","tag-frau","tag-influencer","tag-italian","tag-prison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}