Acquarone vs RCS

Michele Acquarone, Managing Director at RCS Sport (owner of the Giro d'Italia, MSR, Il Lombardia, +) and director of the Giro d'Italia, was fired in November, 2013. He had been suspended in October, 2013, as a precautionary, "non-disciplinary", measure while an investigation of a shortfall of 13 million euro was taking place.

Today, I received the following from Michele:

"Today, at 10 am at the Court of Milan there was the first act of my legal battle against RCS Sport.

It was just a preliminary hearing, but it was very painful to find myself in front of the judge against my former company to which I have devoted my whole professional career.

I had worked for RCS for 14 years and, as you know, my employment was officially terminated last November, but everything has been done on the 1st of October 2014 when I was suspended and RCS hinted that I was responsible for the misappropriation of several million Euros.

Over the last 10 months I have always rejected any wrongdoing. I have a clear conscience and I know I had always worked with the greatest fidelity and diligence to grow in value and prestige those products and business that I have been entrusted with. And I always did it with excellent results much appreciated by both the market and RCS.

Even the day when the RCS Sport affair was exposing, on the 27th of September, RCS MediaGroup publicly gave me a renewed confidence and I was asked to take care of RCS Sport and the Giro during the upcoming investigation.

Then in the space of a weekend, RCS had a sudden change of direction. First the suspension then the public pillory. From that moment RCS big bosses have spoken to me no more. All of my contact attempts have fallen on deaf ears.

RCS managed the affair just using myself as a media scapegoat. They never gave an explanation of what happened. In 10 months there was only silence. Meanwhile, the defenestration of the Giro Director has had a growing international echo that slowly disintegrated my reputation. In parallel with my suspension RCS publicly announced the starting of an external audit. We never heard anything about that. The report by E&Y (Ernst & Young) that today was produced in court merely reconstructs the missing items, without even trying to understand how it was possible that more than 10 million Euros disappeared from the accounts of a listed company without anyone noticed anything abnormal.

I could accept losing my job that I loved, but I can not accept that RCS has dirtied my professional image built over many years of commitment and sacrifice, and that has always been based on honesty and respect.

In recent days I have read the statement of defense of RCS. They produced in court many documents in which my signature was obviously forged and which I promptly disowned. in the past months, when I asked RCS to show me documents and signatures they refused calling “pretentious” my request. This makes the affair even more shameful.

The RCS Sport affair is still under investigation by the prosecutor of Milan which I attended as a witness, Prosecutor has also my complaint for defamation against RCS.

Next hearing will be on the 1st of October 2014."
 

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Michele Acquarone, about being Fired

Michele Acquarone, speaking publicly in Milano yesterday about being fired from RCS, read the following statement:

"I have already dedicated 14 years of my life to the RCS Group, the last five of which I spent working tirelessly on strengthening and growing RCS Sport. As director of Giro d'Italia I sought to develop the prestige of this event as part of Italy's heritage and for cycling fans all over the world. Looking at the results, I would say that I have succeeded.

"It was much to my frustration however that I could not participate in the presentation of that which I consider one of my most accomplished creations, the 2014 Giro d'Italia, and I apologize to all the friends I could not meet with," it continued.

"Those who know me are well aware that my professional style is based on three key concepts: fairness, respect and dialogue. Those who know me also know that I hold the trust of fans and of people involved in the industry, at the center of my heart, and if today I can benefit from such trust it is because I have always worked with greatest transparency and honesty, as well as with total dedication and loyalty to the RCS Group.

"For the ties linking me to Giro fans and to the people involved in the industry, I want to strongly reassure everyone of my non-involvement in the matters that have been reported in the mass media over the last few days. Today the life of a company is permanently marked in time and I am certain that all the facts will soon be completely clarified.

"I only dream about the day I can return to my team, and get back to working towards the 2014 Giro d'Italia, with even greater enthusiasm than that which has driven me over these years."



www.cyclingnews.com reported the following quotes (also including statements after the official statement):

"I'm here because I need to get rid of the mud that has been thrown at me. I've not been able to speak because I was an employee of RCS. Today I need to say what I feel, to shout that I'm totally extraneous to what has happened. "I'm not under investigation but I can't see a single reason why I should be. I've never taken one Euro more than my salary. That'll be the most difficult thing to convince people. I was in the headlines, on the BBC and in the Washington Post. I hope I'll have the same headlines when I'm cleared. I want to prove my dignity to be 100% restored."

"I was suspended and to be honest initially I wasn't worried. Everything seemed perfect when I came back from my holidays in September and we were ready to start working on the new season of events. After I was suspended, as the days passed I was hoping that things would be clarified. That didn’t happen until I was accused and then fired, with RCS saying "that I could have and should have stopped certain irregularities happening. I asked RCS to explain how I should and could have done that and asked for the reasons for me being fired. They replied that my request was an excuse and shouldn't have been made."

"People think I've fooled myself about being cleared but I'd hoped to go back to work right to the end. To find myself out of RCS Sport is devastating and feel I've been stabbed in the back three times."

"I've spent a long time thinking about my tomorrow. I'm 42. I've run a marathon in the past and now I've got to run another and start from scratch."


You can see an interview with Acquarone, in Italian, here from yesterday (after 15 second ad).


Content for the Italian Cycling Journal is now based upon contributions from readers. Please contribute. Stories about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. 

Michele Acquarone, Giro d'Italia Director, Fired

Michele Acquarone, Managing Director at RCS Sports (owner of the Giro d'Italia, MSR, Il Lombardia, +) and director of the Giro d'Italia, has reportedly now been fired. He had been suspended in October as a precautionary, "non-disciplinary", measure while an investigation of a shortfall of 13 million euro was taking place. Mauro Vegni will assume the role of Giro d'Italia race director.

Acquarone will be holding a press conference tomorrow at noon in Milano.

Back in October, Acquarone made the following statement:

" I have dedicated fourteen years of my life to the RCS Group, the last five of which I spent working tirelessly on strengthening and growing RCS Sport.

As director of Giro d’Italia, I sought to develop the prestige of this event as part of Italy’s heritage and for cycling fans all over the world. Looking at the results, I would say that I have succeeded.

It was much to my frustration however that I could not participate in the presentation of that which I consider one of my most accomplished creations, the 2014 Giro d’Italia, and I apologize to all the friends I could not meet with.

Those who know me, are well aware that my professional style is based on three key concepts: fairness, respect and dialogue.

Those who know me, also know that I hold the trust of fans and of people involved in the industry, at the center of my heart, and if today I can benefit from such trust, it is because I have always worked with greatest transparency and honesty, as well as with total dedication and loyalty to the RCS Group.

For the ties linking me to Giro fans and to the people involved in the industry, I want to strongly reassure everyone of my non-involvement in the matters that have been reported in the mass media over the last few days.

Today the life of a company is permanently marked in time, and I am certain that all the facts will soon be completely clarified.

I only dream about the day I can return to my team, and get back to working towards the 2014 Giro d’Italia, with even greater enthusiasm than that which has driven me over these years.

Thank you for your support, and see you soon.

Michele Acquarone"
Content for the Italian Cycling Journal is now based upon contributions from readers. Please contribute. Stories about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. 

 

Statement from Michele Acquarone, Giro d'Italia Director (Suspended)

Michele Acquarone, Managing Director at RCS Sports (owner of the Giro d'Italia, MSR, Il Lombardia, +), was suspended earlier this month as a precautionary, "non-disciplinary", measure while an investigation of a shortfall of 13 million euro is investigated.

He was not present at the 2014 Giro d'Italia presentation on Monday, October 7th.

Today he tweeted "If you love the @giroditalia and you believe in me, please RT. Se ami il @giroditalia e credi in me, per favore RT" followed by this (if you have trouble reading click here):

Click to enlarge

" I have dedicated fourteen years of my life to the RCS Group, the last five of which I spent working tirelessly on strengthening and growing RCS Sport.

As director of Giro d’Italia, I sought to develop the prestige of this event as part of Italy’s heritage and for cycling fans all over the world. Looking at the results, I would say that I have succeeded.

It was much to my frustration however that I could not participate in the presentation of that which I consider one of my most accomplished creations, the 2014 Giro d’Italia, and I apologize to all the friends I could not meet with.

Those who know me, are well aware that my professional style is based on three key concepts: fairness, respect and dialogue.

Those who know me, also know that I hold the trust of fans and of people involved in the industry, at the center of my heart, and if today I can benefit from such trust, it is because I have always worked with greatest transparency and honesty, as well as with total dedication and loyalty to the RCS Group.

For the ties linking me to Giro fans and to the people involved in the industry, I want to strongly reassure everyone of my non-involvement in the matters that have been reported in the mass media over the last few days.

Today the life of a company is permanently marked in time, and I am certain that all the facts will soon be completely clarified.

I only dream about the day I can return to my team, and get back to working towards the 2014 Giro d’Italia, with even greater enthusiasm than that which has driven me over these years.

Thank you for your support, and see you soon.

Michele Acquarone"

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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.

Michele Acquarone, Director at RCS Sports, Suspended

Michele Acquarone, Managing  Director at RCS Sports (owner of the Giro d'Italia, MSR, Il Lombardia, +), has been been suspended as a precautionary,  "non-disciplinary", measure while an investigation of a shortfall of 13 million euro is investigated.

Always present at their races, Aquarone is said to be not appearing this Sunday at Il Lombardia. It will be more telling to see if he's present at the 2014 Giro d'Italia official presentation on Monday, October 7th.

Aquarone took over the reins from Angelo Zomegnan soon afterward the 2011 Giro d'Italia.

Follow on Twitter: ITALIANCYCJOURN or receive an email when new content is added using the "Follow by Email" button on the right side column. With more than 3,000 stories in this blog the custom search feature (right column) works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button underneath the search button.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, racing, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com.