Chiara Ferragni and Alessandra Balocco under Investigation for Alleged Fraud

Chiara Ferragni, the influencer involved in the branded Pandoro affair, is under investigation by the Milan Prosecutor's Office on charges of aggravated fraud. Along with her, Alessandra Balocco, CEO and president of the Piedmontese company that produces the Christmas dessert sponsored by the influencer, is also under investigation. They allegedly made it appear that part of the proceeds from the sales would go to support the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin. The decision to register the two entrepreneurs was made by Deputy Prosecutor Eugenio Fusco, who coordinates the investigations, informing step by step the Prosecutor of the Republic Marcello Viola. The file was opened before Christmas, then delegated to the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, which collected the documents of the procedure in the Antitrust offices at the end of the year. The procedure ended in the first instance with a maxi fine of over a million euros for the influencer. Aggravated fraud, regulated by art. 640 c.p., is punished by the Penal Code for anyone who, through tricks or deception, induces someone into error, procuring an unjust profit for themselves or others, to the detriment of others. The first hypothesis of aggravated fraud is linked to the fact committed to the detriment of the State or another public body. The second hypothesis falls when the fact is committed by generating in the offended person the fear of an imaginary danger. The third and last hypothesis is what we can rename as the exploitation of other people's weaknesses. The crime of fraud is punished with imprisonment from six months to three years, and with a fine from 51 euros to 1,032 euros. The penalties are heavier when it comes to aggravated fraud. That is: increase in imprisonment from one to five years; increase in the fine from 309 euros to 1,549 euros.