Italy’s biggest scum-bag producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori (producer of Academy Award winning film “Life is Beautiful“) was questioned today by Italian authorities because he’s been avoiding payment to creditors by moving money around his various companies in order to appear bankrupt.

Maintaining his innocence from Rome’s Regina Coeli jail where he is being held Cecchi Gori said:

“There has been a misunderstanding, and it will be cleared up.”

Cecchi Gori has long been associated with shady dealings. His Finmavi company was insolvent in 2006 with $927 million in debt. He took once prominent A.C. Fiorentina soccer club from succesful team in the mid-1990’s to bankruptcy in 2001 and His Finmavi holding company went bankrupt in 2006, with $927 million in debt, but his exhibition loop was excluded from the bankruptcy proceedings.

The once-dominant Italian production/distribution/exhibition outfit began its downward spiral in the mid-1990s when it branched out from film into TV and acquired the A.C. Fiorentina soccer club, which went belly up in 2001. And while police were searching for financial records at Ceccho Gori’s Rome house in 2001, they came across several grams of cocaine.

Despite this, Ceccho Gori was succesful this year with sexy teen romance film “Scusa ma ti chiamo amore” (Sorry If I Call You Love which has grossed $18 million in Italy.

The fate of the Los Angeles based Cecchi Gori Pictures shingle run by producer Gianni Nunnari however is not looking very optimistic.

All this is very interesting film material perhaps about the 66-year-old film producer who is the son of Mario Cecchi Gori (a now deceased Italian film producer of over 200 films.) In his heyday, Vittorio was also a Senator from the Italian’s People’s Party and an owner of Channel La7.

Cecchi Gori produced “Il Postino” which was also an Academy Award nominated film.

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