Luca Volontè (born 17 March 1966) is an Italian politician, born in

Saronno Saronno (; lmo, Saronn ) is a ''comune'' of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Varese. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree in 1960. With an estimated population of 39,351 inhabitants, it is the most densely populate ...

( Lombardy). He has graduated in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

from the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest uni ...

. He is a member of the Union of the Centre.

Political career

In 1994, Luca Volontè became in charge of the local entities in the Italian Popular Party (PPI). He followed

Rocco Buttiglione Rocco Buttiglione (; born 6 June 1948) is an Italian Union of Christian and Centre Democrats politician and an academic. Buttiglione's nomination for a post as European Commissioner with a portfolio that was to include civil liberties, resulted ...

in the split from the PPI, which lead to the foundation of the CDU, where he became an organizational manager. Luca Volontè was elected as a Member to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon ...

from the second constituency of Lombardy during the elections of 1996. He was re-elected in 2001, 2006 and 2008. From 2010 to 2013 he served as chairman of the

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of some members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council. Parliamenta ...

of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Fo ...

in the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up ...

Corruption charges and conviction

Following investigative reports, published by the

European Stability Initiative The European Stability Initiative (ESI) is a think tank focusing on South East Europe and enlargement of the European Union. It has offices in Berlin, Brussels and Istanbul. History The ESI was founded in June 1999 in Sarajevo. Its founders, multi ...

on "

Caviar diplomacy Caviar diplomacy is a lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan, consisting of costly invitations to foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country. Caviar diplomacy also includes expensive ...

", in June 2016, the

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

prosecutor's office brought charges against Luca Volontè on 2 episodes: money laundering and accepting bribes. In 2017, it was also revealed that Volontè had been involved in the

Azerbaijani laundromat The Azerbaijani laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in September 2017. The investigations exposed that during two years between 2 ...

scandal - a complex

money-laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

scheme used to pay off European politicians in an attempt to whitewash Azerbaijan’s reputation abroad. According to the Prosecutor's Office Volontè received €2.39 million to organise support for Azerbaijani officials in the Council of Europe. In January 2021, Criminal Section X of the Court of Milan sentenced Luca Volontè to four years in prison for taking bribes from Azerbaijani politicians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volonte, Luca 1966 births Living people Deputies of Legislature XIII of Italy Deputies of Legislature XIV of Italy Deputies of Legislature XV of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVI of Italy 20th-century Italian politicians 21st-century Italian politicians Prisoners and detainees of Italy