{"id":6806,"date":"2024-10-28T05:43:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T05:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/essilorluxottica-backs-del-vecchio-as-hacking-probe-escalates\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T05:43:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T05:43:48","slug":"essilorluxottica-backs-del-vecchio-as-hacking-probe-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=6806","title":{"rendered":"EssilorLuxottica backs Del Vecchio as hacking probe escalates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EssilorLuxottica has expressed its \u201cfull support\u201d to chief strategy officer Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the late founder\u2019s son, after Milanese prosecutors placed him under investigation as part of a sprawling probe into the alleged trafficking of illegally acquired private information.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeonardo Maria is doing a great job in his role at EssilorLuxottica and he has our full support at this difficult time,\u201d the company told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors told a press conference on Saturday that four people had been arrested and dozens, including Del Vecchio, had been placed under investigation. Milanese investigators are probing whether individuals paid a local business intelligence company, Equalize, to allegedly hack state databases, including tax authorities\u2019. The allegations also include planting Trojan viruses in people\u2019s phones, and fabricating fake information about high-profile individuals to tarnish their reputation.<\/p>\n

EssilorLuxottica is not part of the investigation. <\/p>\n

The move by investigators comes at a delicate time for EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses whose valuation reached more than \u20ac100bn last week. Facebook owner Meta has also been in discussions with the group over a multibillion-euro investment as the social media platform intensifies its push to develop smart glasses.<\/p>\n

The probe has pushed Del Vecchio to consider whether to temporarily step back from his duties as the EssilorLuxottica\u2019s chief strategy officer, according to people close to the situation. Two others said the company was not pressuring him to do so.<\/p>\n

Del Vecchio\u2019s lawyer, Maria Emanuela Mascalchi, said in a statement that her client \u201cseems to be a victim [rather than a perpetrator] in light of the initial allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/source>\"Leonardo<\/picture>
Milanese authorities placed dozens, including Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, pictured, under investigation<\/span> \u00a9 Angel Weiss\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She added that Del Vecchio was \u201ceagerly awaiting the completion of preliminary investigations to be able to prove he has nothing to do with the events in question and that charges laid against him have no basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Investigators are probing whether two people who worked for Del Vecchio\u2019s family office instructed Equalize, people close to the investigation told the FT. Investigators have evidence of multiple meetings between Del Vecchio\u2019s family office executives and Equalize staff in 2023, the people said.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s office declined to further comment on the investigation. It said on Saturday that four Equalize employees, including its founder and chief executive, had been arrested as part of the ongoing probe. There are no formal findings of wrongdoing so far.<\/p>\n

Calls to Equalize\u2019s office seeking comment were not answered on Sunday.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Del Vecchio family office declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Del Vecchio is the son of the late Italian billionaire, Leonardo Del Vecchio. After his father\u2019s death in 2022 Leonardo Maria inherited a 12.5 per cent stake, worth about $5bn, in the family\u2019s Luxembourg-based holding company Delfin, along with his mother and six half-siblings.<\/p>\n

Alongside its EssilorLuxottica stake, Delfin also owns shares in financial institutions Generali, Mediobanca and UniCredit.<\/p>\n

Del Vecchio has recently made investments through his family office in a series of businesses, including in the hospitality and drinks sectors, and has launched a popular luxury restaurant brand in Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free EssilorLuxottica has expressed its \u201cfull support\u201d to chief strategy officer Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the late founder\u2019s son, after Milanese prosecutors placed him under investigation as part of a sprawling probe into the alleged trafficking of illegally acquired private information. \u201cLeonardo Maria is doing a great job in his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[1562,1563,1566,1561,1565,1139,1564],"class_list":{"0":"post-6806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-backs","9":"tag-del","10":"tag-escalates","11":"tag-essilorluxottica","12":"tag-hacking","13":"tag-probe","14":"tag-vecchio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}