Valentino Rossi spent the better part of Valentine’s Day in two different Pesaro court rooms.
The MotoGP rider had to testify in two separate proceedings, one criminal and one civil.
The first is a criminal suit that sees Rossi’s former manager the 55-year old Gibo Badioli who is being accused of tax evasion on 10 million euros that he allegedly earned in Italy and not in England, where he like Rossi, lived to take advantage of the British non-domiciled resident status, and the second was a civil suit that Rossi brought against his former tax consultants Mainardi and Tasini – who helped him settle with the Italian Internal Revenue Office, but billed him 1.
8 million euros for their efforts, which the Italian racer believes to be a case of overbilling.
When Rossi was asked about Badioli, who previously handled all his contracts, he said, “The contracts with Gibo? It was all verbal, the rule was that he would take 20% of my earnings and I kept the 80% … and he was directly involved with the companys.
In our London home there was a place for his office and for his secretary Elena.
” When he was asked how Badioli was paid, Rossi answered, “I don’t know, I personally never gave him anything”.
In the second case Rossi spent several hours getting grilled by the defendants lawyers who made him answer 140 questions regarding his tax settlement, he even cracked jokes, “For some of the advice that I gave when we negotiating with the Inland Revenue office, I should have billed you …” Rossi’s lawyers then proposed to settle the bill with 700,000 euros.
Both proceedings were then suspended until May and the one involving his former accountants will then see Carlo Fiorani, Davide Brivio and Lin Jarvis also testify.
Leaving the court Rossi smiled to the journalists who were present and said, “I’ll make up for the day tonight, I’m engaged …” [to Linda Morselli]Rossi turns 34 today.