Campari Chairman Faces Trial Request Over $1.45 Billion Tax Evasion Allegations

The Campari logo is seen on a building Feb. 2 in Palermo, Italy. (Photo: Cristian Bonaviri/NurPhoto via AP)

Italian prosecutors have requested a trial for Campari Chairman Luca Garavoglia over alleged tax evasion involving €1.29 billion ($1.45 billion), Reuters reported Thursday.

Prosecutors in Monza, northern Italy, have also requested a trial for Giovanni Berto, legal representative of Lagfin, the Luxembourg-based family holding company that controls Campari. A judge will decide whether the case proceeds to trial or is dismissed following a preliminary hearing.

The case centers on allegations that Lagfin failed to pay an Italian exit tax after transferring its corporate structure to Luxembourg in 2018. Prosecutors allege the company failed to declare €5.3 billion ($5.9 billion) in capital gains generated between 2018 and 2020, resulting in an unpaid tax bill of €1.29 billion.

Garavoglia, 57, has chaired Campari since 1994 and is the group’s largest shareholder through Lagfin.

Lagfin settled a separate tax dispute with Italy’s Revenue Agency in December 2025, agreeing to pay €405 million ($454 million) in installments. Italian law treats tax proceedings and criminal investigations as separate matters, however, allowing the criminal case to continue.

Prosecutors’ allegations previously led to the confiscation of shares valued at €1.29 ($1.45) billion from Lagfin in October 2025.

Lagfin said the case against the company had been dismissed on statute-of-limitations grounds in July. The company also said it could not suffer financial loss or prejudice as a result of the proceedings.

Lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone, who represents Garavoglia and Berto alongside fellow lawyer Nerio Diodà, told Reuters: “The trial will establish beyond any doubt that our clients are innocent.”

The investigation stems from a 2018 merger between Alicros, the Italian company that controlled Campari, and Luxembourg-based Lagfin, which held a majority stake in Alicros.

The merger combined the entities into a single company holding a 51% stake in Campari, then valued at more than €4 billion on the stock market, and transferred the corporate structure to Luxembourg.

Prosecutors and Italy’s financial police allege the transaction was designed to avoid the exit tax applied to capital gains when a company transfers its fiscal residence abroad.