Free works against public contracts: ex-senator Castelli tried for passive influence peddling

The former PRG senator of Haute-Corse, Joseph Castelli, has been on trial since Monday in Bastia for passive influence peddling, the courts suspecting him of having obtained free work on his villa in exchange for the granting of public contracts valued at 10 million euros.

Mr. Castelli, 72, who denies the alleged facts, will be tried before the Bastia Criminal Court for passive influence peddling, concealment of property from a crime, aggravated money laundering and forgery for acts ranging from 2009 to 2016.

At his side, three business leaders are prosecuted for active corruption and abuse of property or credit of a company by a manager for personal purposes.

In October 2018, Mr. Castelli had already been sentenced by the Bastia criminal court to two months suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30.000 euros for having deliberately underestimated the value of his main residence, at the heart of this new trial, by valuing it at 353.000 euros while France Domaines estimated it at more than one million euros.

The entrepreneurs are suspected of having contributed to the financing of this villa and of having, in exchange, benefited from public works contracts amounting to 10 million euros, had indicated at the time of their indictments in January 2016 the Bastia prosecutor at the time, Nicolas Bessone.

These contracts had been awarded until 2010, according to Mr. Bessone, by the community of municipalities of Casinca, in Haute-Corse, and by the town hall of Penta-di-Casinca, communities then headed by Mr. Castelli.

These indictments were the result of an investigation that focused on the conditions of acquisition and the financing of the work in the residence of Mr. Castelli, while he chaired the General Council of Haute-Corse from 2010 to 2014.

The Senate office had lifted Mr. Castelli's parliamentary immunity in October 2015, at the latter's request. Such a measure is very rare.

A retired trader, he was elected to the High Assembly in 2014 and did not stand for re-election in September 2020. Born in 1948 in the village of Penta-di-Casinca (Haute-Corse), Mr. Castelli has d ' he was first deputy of this commune in 1977.

He was then elected, in 1982, general councilor of the canton of Vescovato and mayor of Penta-di-Casinca, a mandate he fulfilled until 2010.