Il Giornale: Massimo Perotti’s name also appears in alleged chats between former managers
A new chapter is opening in the The Italian Sea Group affair, and this time it originates outside the company’s official documentation. It comes from Il Giornale, which today, 21 September, published an article by court and crime reporter Luca Fazzo entitled “Manager infedeli smascherati dai whatsapp sui pc aziendali” (“Disloyal managers exposed by WhatsApp messages on company computers”). The newspaper reconstructs the dispute between Giovanni Costantino and five former senior managers of the group, reporting the existence of WhatsApp conversations allegedly recovered from the company’s IT systems. But another element is likely to attract particular attention within the yachting industry: according to Il Giornale, the name of Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo — a competitor of TISG and today directly interested in the future of the Marina di Carrara shipyard — also appears in connection with the affair.
An essential caveat must be made. PressMare has not had access to the conversations cited by Il Giornale or to the investigation files and is therefore not in a position to independently verify their authenticity, completeness, context, method of acquisition or evidentiary value. Everything concerning the chats must therefore be attributed to the newspaper’s reconstruction and to the allegations made by the complainant. The allegations against the former managers remain subject to investigation and do not constitute judicially established facts.
The broader context in which the news emerges is, however, supported by corporate documentation. TISG states that it filed a criminal complaint against a number of former senior executives, alleging that they acted in a coordinated manner, concealing the actual management of contracts and providing accounting and management information that did not reflect the true situation. The complaint, initially filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Massa, was subsequently assigned to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Genoa. The company also states that on 2 March 2026 it appointed KPMG to conduct an independent forensic investigation, which began on 8 April and was completed on 22 July.
According to TISG, the audit allegedly found that five managers had, over time, authorised budget overruns without the Chief Executive Officer’s approval and that certain monthly reports submitted to the CEO had allegedly been altered to show figures that appeared consistent with the approved budgets. The company claims that some additional costs were concealed in its management system through a generic item known as “Commessa 0” (“Project 0”), and also reports purchase orders issued without the CEO’s approval and factoring transactions authorised with the signatures of former managers who, according to TISG, did not have the necessary powers. The company documentation also alleges the improper use of the CEO’s digital signature to obtain financing in September 2025 and for the issuance of guarantees by the parent company GC Holding.
It is against this backdrop that the new information published by Il Giornale emerges. According to Fazzo, Costantino filed a supplementary complaint last August in which a significant role is attributed to numerous pages of WhatsApp messages exchanged between some of the former managers. The newspaper describes these conversations as the “smoking gun” in the reconstruction put forward by Costantino.
This is where Massimo Perotti enters the picture. The article reports that Costantino had focused attention on what he describes as “relationships cultivated by the same executives with Cavaliere Massimo Perotti”, whom the newspaper identifies as his main competitor at the helm of Sanlorenzo. This passage requires clarification: without access to the original conversations, PressMare cannot establish which references to Perotti are actually contained in the messages, who made them, in what context, or the nature of the relationships to which the reconstruction refers. Moreover, the possible existence of communications between managers of competing companies would not, in itself, be sufficient to attribute unlawful or improper conduct to any of the individuals mentioned.
The industrial significance of this circumstance stems from what happened subsequently. Sanlorenzo is today directly involved in the process concerning TISG’s assets through Polo Nautico Carrara. Two separate issues must, however, remain clearly distinguished: the reference to Perotti in the allegations that Il Giornale attributes to Costantino, and Sanlorenzo’s current interest in The Italian Sea Group’s business and assets. The sequence of events is journalistically significant, but on the basis of the information currently available there is no evidence that would allow a causal relationship to be established between the two circumstances.
Another key aspect of the reconstruction concerns how the conversations were allegedly recovered. According to Il Giornale, the former managers used WhatsApp and WhatsApp Web on company computers; after they left the company, the devices were handed over to IT specialists, who were allegedly able to recover backups, sessions and chat synchronisations. These are factors that could determine the actual weight of the material in the proceedings, but PressMare has no independent confirmation regarding the technical methods used to recover the data, its integrity, the chain of custody or whether the conversations were actually submitted to the judicial authorities.
The news comes at a particularly sensitive stage. The process that will determine the future of the group and its industrial assets is under way, with several parties having expressed interest, including Sanlorenzo through Polo Nautico Carrara. The fact that the ongoing procedure and today’s report coincide in time ensures that the affair will attract considerable attention within the industry, and for precisely this reason it is essential not to conflate matters that remain separate.
The actual significance of what Il Giornale reports can only be assessed on the basis of judicial records: whether the conversations were in fact acquired as part of the proceedings, how they were obtained, their full content and what relevance the investigating authorities may ultimately attribute to them. Until then, the reference to the chats and to Perotti’s name remains what it is: a new element in the journalistic reconstruction of the TISG crisis.
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