In the first trial, asbestos billionaire owner of Eternit asbestos plants, Stephan Schmidheiny, been convicted in the trial court and the court of appeal. Schmidheiny was appealing an 18-year jail sentence for creating an environmental disaster in 2013. Recent disclosure of documents from the files of deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein show that Schmidheiny sought assistance of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his aide, Avner Azulay, a former Mossad secret service official, to overturn the jail sentence. Rai3, a public television network, ran a documentary on the new disclosures. It is not clear what assistance Barak and Azulay provided, although Schmidheiny's associate sent thanks to Azulay the evening the Court of Cassation decided to overturn the conviction of Schmidheiny on grounds of statutes of limitations in 2014.
Subsequently, between 2018-2023, Schmidheiny was convicted of manslaughter in three separate trials, and those convictions have now been affirmed by appeals courts. These convictions and jail sentences are now being contested on their final appeal before the Court of Cassation. Schmidheiny's final delaying tactic was to demand that the record of cases on appeal all be translated into German so the billionaire can read it. In the meantime, the clock is ticking, and some of the cases in which he was convicted may be voided because of the statutes of limitations for manslaughter under Italian law. The Schmidheiny story was one of several topics included in the program. The url is at
https://www.raiplay.it/video/2025/12/Report---Puntata-del-04012026-555b0545-08e3-4eaa-a566-7b883c49989c.html
Barry Castleman
The English translation of the program done by Vicky Franzinetti is as under:
THE DEVIL'S OFFER
By Sacha Biazzo
With Luigi Scarano and Cristiana Mastronicola
Images research by Tiziana Battisti
Editing by Andrea Masella
Graphics by Giorgio Vallati
[relevant section of the programme]
DONALD TRUMP – PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA –
15/07/2025
“I don't understand why anyone would be interested in the Jeffrey Epstein case. It's pretty boring. It's sorted, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going on.”
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Trump claims that there is nothing interesting in the confidential documents on Jeffrey Epstein, who financed billionaires, although until the very end he [Trump] tried to prevent their publication. Not only are the photographs of meetings with underage girls embarrassing for the White House, but also the evidence that Epstein was at the centre of an international network of influence that included leading members of the Israeli government and Mossad secret agents [TN the text actually says former in both cases].
MEGHNAD BOSE – PROFESSOR OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM – UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
What the mainstream media has largely ignored is a second aspect of what these 'Epstein files' reveal: Epstein's geopolitical role, the role Epstein played as a power broker between politics and business, and the intersection between politics, business and the global elite. And, above all, with the Israeli government and powerful Israeli politicians.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Epstein never had time to clarify these relationships because, after being arrested in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors, he died shortly afterwards in prison, officially committing suicide. The only available evidence is that contained in the documents on Epstein released by the US government, although heavily censored.
MEGHNAD BOSE – PROFESSOR OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM – UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
The Department of Justice has published a heavily redacted version of the files. For example, there is a document of over one hundred pages in which every single page has been redacted.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Today, Report can reveal for the first time ever that the Israeli network, of which Epstein was also a member, acted on several occasions in Italy, attempting to influence the outcome of one of the most significant maxi-trials of the last twenty years, the one relating to the Eternit disaster.
GIACOMO MATTALIA – LAWYER FOR ASBESTOS VICTIMS – ETERNIT CASE
This is a very important trial because there are many victims, and there are many victims because, as we said before, it was a disaster.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
This environmental disaster was caused by asbestos fibres released by Eternit factories. These fibres cause mesotheliomas, an incurable form of lung cancer, in those who breathe them in.
GIACOMO MATTALIA – LAWYER FOR ASBESTOS VICTIMS – ETERNIT CASE
It's a death sentence. It's like talking about a person who, at a certain point, finds themselves with an hourglass in front of them, it is turned and someone says: this sand is all the time you have left to live.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
It was not only the workers at the Casale Monferrato plant who were sentenced to death, but also the thousands of inhabitants of the surrounding areas, to the extent that over 6,000 plaintiffs (parties civiles) represented the victims at the trial.
DANIELA DEGIOVANNI – ONCOLOGIST (CANCER SPEACIALIST)
That tumour had a name and a surname for the asbestos workers.
LUIGI SCARANO
What was the name and surname of this tumour?
DANIELA DEGIOVANNI – ONCOLOGIST
The name and surname that all of them were able to give me, even though they were not doctors, was Stephan Schmidheiny.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Stephan Schmidheiny is the Swiss billionaire who was head of Eternit, the multinational company that produced and exported asbestos products all over the world. Investigators ascertained that Schmidheiny and his executives had been aware of the dangers of asbestos since the 1970s, and for this reason, in 2013, the appeal judges sentenced the Swiss billionaire to 18 years in prison. But it is at this point that the trial turns into an international intrigue, involving even [former] members of the Israeli secret service.
SIGFRIDO RANUCCI IN THE STUDIO
Back in the 1990s, Schmidheiny held positions on the boards of directors of the banks UBS and Nestlé, as well as the watch manufacturer Swatch. But above all, he owned Eternit. In June 2013, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for wilful environmental disaster, a verdict which meant he should have paid compensation to thousands of civil parties. It was one of the first sentences in the world to criminally convict the top management of a company, a multinational corporation, for structural and long-term environmental disaster. If upheld by the Court of Cassation, that conviction could have led to many other trials in Europe.
It was in this context that Schmidheiny's right-hand man, Heinz Pauli, wrote to Avner Azulay, a [former] Mossad agent who had operated in Europe, who in turn involved Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister, a key figure in Israeli military intelligence. Barak was the man who later founded Paragon, the company that produced software used to spy on Italian journalists and activists. Barak's point of reference was Jeffrey Epstein, the man of sex scandals. So, by studying the numerous, hundreds of thousands of emails, we discovered that there is a network that has intertwined the interests of politicians, finance, the surveillance industry and even trials, here in Italy too. Barak acted, together with former Mossad agents, to save Schmidheiny, who is referred to in the emails by the acronym STS, from a final conviction by the Court of Cassation. Not only did they plan to save him from conviction by the Court of Cassation, but they also planned to ensure his escape, if it became necessary.
Our Sacha Biazzo with the collaboration of Luigi Scarano.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
In the confidential emails that we obtained, we read that Schmidheiny's closest associates set to work to prevent the owner of Eternit from going to prison at all costs. The Swiss billionaire had just been sentenced to 18 years in prison in appeal and, if the sentence had been upheld by the Court of Cassation, he could have spent decades behind bars. On September the 16th, 2013, before Eternit's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court against the sentence, Swiss financier Heinz Pauli, Schmidheiny's right-hand man, asked for the intervention of a former senior Mossad agent, Avner Azulay, who had been the powerful Israeli secret service's liaison officer in Europe.
EMAIL FROM HEINZ PAULI TO AVNER AZULAY – 16/09/2013
Dear Avner, I am sending you a full update on recent developments – the appeal ruling and a summary of the arguments before filing the appeal with the Court of Cassation in Rome. Kind regards, Heinz Pauli.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Former Mossad agent Azulay immediately alerted Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel, to the Italian problem and forwards him Schmidheiny's defence documents, in which the Turin verdict is described as absurd and Schmidheiny is presented as a saviour of human lives.
EMAIL FROM AVNER AZULAY TO EHUD BARAK – 19/09/2013
Shalom and happy holidays Ehud, I would be grateful if you could confirm receipt of this. Best regards, Avner
EMAIL FROM EHUD BARAK TO AVNER AZULAY – 19/09/2013
Avner, happy holidays to you too. I have received it and will read it. Ehud.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Ehud Barak, in addition to having been prime minister, had also been chief of staff and director of military intelligence in Israel. After leaving politics, he began working in cyber security, co-founding Paragon, the company whose software was used to spy on Italian entrepreneurs, journalists and activists. It was Barak whom Eternit owner Stephan Schmidheiny turned to for help when the latter was facing the prospect of prison.
EMAIL FROM AVNER AZULAY TO EHUD BARAK – 20/09/2013
Ehud, I am sending you more material that speaks for itself.
EMAIL FROM AVNER AZULAY TO EHUD BARAK – 21/09/2013
The deadline for filing the appeal in Rome is 31 October 2013, Avner.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
There is little time left: within a month, the Swiss billionaire's defence team had to file an appeal with the Court of Cassation. Before justice could take its course, a plan had to be devised to help the powerful billionaire. The right-hand man of the Eternit owner wrote to the former Mossad officer. The matter was extremely confidential, so much so that in the email exchange, the group never uses Schmidheiny's name, but only his initials STS.
EMAIL FROM HEINZ PAULI TO AVNER AZULAY – 20/09/2013
Dear Avner, I am forwarding you an analysis by STS's leading lawyers who are dealing with the recent ruling. We are leaving for Tel Aviv and I look forward to seeing you. It would be great if we could set aside some time for a creative discussion on the Italian issue.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
The group decided to move immediately to an operational phase and organised a meeting in the Israeli city to find a creative solution to all Schmidheiny's problems. The former agent of the Jewish state's secret service made himself available, despite the fact that the Schmidheiny family had conducted business in Germany under Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime during the Second World War.
MASSIMO ALIOTTA – LAWYER AND FOUNDER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS IN SWITZERLAND
During the Second World War, there was an Eternit factory in Berlin where prisoners of war also worked.
I set out to find one of these forced labourers. I decided to take her back to Berlin to see the factory where she had worked during the Second World War. She looked around and said, 'Here were the guards with their rifles, here were the ones with the dogs'. I asked her who owned the factory, and she said, 'The Nazi Germans, of course'. And then I explained to her: 'Look, the Schmidheiny family' was the capital behind it’.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Despite the Schmidheinys' cooperation with the Third Reich, the former Prime Minister of the Jewish state, Ehud Barak, through former Mossad agent Azulay, offered to help the Swiss billionaire several possibilities. At their meeting in Tel Aviv, they even discuss 'derailing the train' of Italian justice, as was clear from the emails we obtained. However, Schmidheiny and his lawyers feared that interfering with the Italian magistrates could be counterproductive and therefore proposed a new strategy to the Israelis.
EMAIL FROM HEINZ PAULI TO AVNER AZULAY – 04/10/2013
STS believed that the only promising path, at the time, was to work discreetly within Rome’s [high] society circles, speaking non-aggressively with opinion leaders and explaining that a negative decision by the Court of Cassation could damage Italy as a whole, in the sense that it would scare off the international investment and business communities, dissuading them from doing business in Italy for years to come.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
The strategy was to leverage Rome’s 'society circles' through the former Israeli ambassador to Italy. If the Israeli lobby's efforts failed, the group prepared for the most extreme case. If Schmidheiny were to be convicted by the Court of Cassation, Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, would have to guarantee the Swiss billionaire's safety by offering him a way to escape arrest by the Italian police.
EMAIL HEINZ PAULI AVNER AZULAY –04/10/2013
Further down the line, a few months’ later – once the decision is known – we need to set up an international initiative and try to persuade the Italian authorities to revoke, review or overturn the Supreme Court's ruling, as appropriate. If the prison sentence is upheld and STS is forced to remain within Swiss borders, he would be interested in talking to you about his safety in relation to a possible European arrest warrant.
SIGFRIDO RANUCCI IN THE STUDIO
So, as we have seen, Schmidheiny's men had somehow come up with a creative solution to avoid prison for the Eternit boss and had therefore turned to former Mossad agents, such as Avener Azulay, who had essentially involved Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister and key figure in Israeli military intelligence. What was this creative strategy? In short, the first step was to work behind the scenes in the circles and salons that matter in Roman society, that is politicians, businessmen and magistrates. The aim was to promote the idea that a negative decision by the Court of Cassation would damage Italy as a whole and scare the international community away from future commitments and investments. However, there was also a plan B, if the action on the Supreme Court ruling failed, which was to safely manage Schmidheiny's flight from justice. This was not the first time that the owner of Eternit had resorted to intelligence. Forty years previously, when there was a problem managing the information crisis, he hired a major communications agency, the one headed by Guido Bellodi. What happened? He had his victims, those who were later affected by asbestos, as well as some part of the judiciary, spied on. In 2005, a bundle of documents called 'the Bible' was seized by the police from the offices of this communications company. Inside were instructions on how to behave in these cases, including how to influence public opinion and mislead magistrates. This is what has gone down in history as the Bellodi Handbook, named after the communications expert hired by Schmidheiny.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
As established by investigations conducted by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office, the Swiss entrepreneur had already set up a system in the past to influence Italian public opinion and mislead any judicial investigations through public relations expert Guido Bellodi. The methods used by Bellodi only came to light in 2005 when the police seized what would go down in history as the 'Bellodi Handbook' from his office.
LAURA D'AMICO – LAWYER FOR ASBESTOS VICTIMS – ETERNIT CASE
The Bellodi Handbook' clearly shows that Schmidheiny's concern was to divert the attention of the judicial authorities away from himself at all costs. Not only to try to mislead the information and deny the risk of asbestos, but also to control it. In other words, the subject knew no limits in any respect.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
A system designed to withstand the pressure of possible investigations by the press and the judiciary was the core of the Bellodi method, which was structured on four levels of containment to prevent Schmidheiny's name from ever coming out.
Bellodi's first line of defence was to say: this was an Italian company, if anyone was at fault, it was the Italian engineers and managers. If this line of defence was broken, the second line was to say that it was a Swiss problem, but that it did not involve Stephan Schmidheiny. The fourth line of defence was STS, Stephan Schmidheiny, who was not to be mentioned at all, never existed.
SACHA BIAZZO
So, in Bellodi's manual, the name Schmidheiny never appears? There is only STS?
PAOLO RIVELLA – PP CONSULTANT IN THE ETERNIT CASE
Only STS, that's right. I believe they didn't want to use SS, which would be Stephan
Schmidheiny, for obvious reasons, because...
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
To carry out his assignment, Bellodi had set up a group of spies scattered throughout Italy, who had even infiltrated the association of asbestos victims through Maria Cristina Bruno, a journalist who was subsequently struck off the register for this reason.
ROSALBA ALTOPIEDI – PP CONSULTANT IN THE ETERNIT CASE
An infiltrator working for Bellodi, a spy who spied on the victims' association meetings and reported back.
BRUNO PESCE – CO-FOUNDER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS' FAMILIES
Whatever she wanted to know, because she had to report at least once a month.
LUIGI SCARANO
How long did Maria Cristina Bruno attend your meetings for?
BRUNO PESCE – CO-FOUNDER OF THE ASBESTOS VICTIMS' FAMILIES ASSOCIATION
For 21 years.
LUIGI SCARANO
Did he spy on her for 21 years?
BRUNO PESCE – CO-FOUNDER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FAMILIES OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS
Yes.
Can I speak to Dr Bruno?
MARIA CRISTINA BRUNO – FORMER COLLABORATOR OF GUIDO BELLODI
Yes, who is this?
SACHA BIAZZO
Yes, hello, this is Sacha Biazzo from Report, Rai 3. Listen, we're looking into the case you were involved in, right? It's said that you acted as a spy for Schmidheiny, and you were also struck off the register.
MARIA CRISTINA BRUNO – FORMER COLLABORATOR OF GUIDO BELLODI’S
No, look, I don't know anything about that.
SACHA BIAZZO
How can you not know anything?
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
But Schmidheiny's spies even targeted the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office, with the aim of finding out in advance what the magistrates were going to do. As this unpublished document from Bellodi's Handbook shows, as early as the 1990s, Italian spies in the pay of the Swiss billionaire also kept an eye on public prosecutor Dr Raffaele Guariniello, the magistrate who investigated the Eternit case.
SACHA BIAZZO
Did he also have spies in Turin?
PAOLO RIVELLA – PP CONSULTANT IN THE ETERNIT CASE
He also had at least one spy in Turin. I found a trace of a person who
is mentioned as 'Osservatorio Torino'. (the Turin Observatory)
SACHA BIAZZO
Was the espionage in Turin aimed at spying on magistrates?
PAOLO RIVELLA – PP CONSULTANT IN THE ETERNIT CASE
They write clearly that they are spying on Dr Guariniello in particular.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
From the documents uncovered by investigators, we know that Schmidheiny spent an enormous amount of money to maintain this decades-long espionage campaign, much more compared to what he would later offer the victims' families to withdraw from the trial against him.
LAURA D'AMICO – LAWYER FOR ASBESTOS VICTIMS – ETERNIT CASE
If you'll excuse my bluntness any company employee was worth a little more, while the community cases, the residents who died were worth less. Both were worth practically little or nothing.
ASSUNTA PRATO – ASSOCIATION OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS' FAMILIES
I did not accept it. I have three children, and 30,000 euros divided by four is a kick in the backside, a slap in the face. It is truly offensive, it is shameful.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Schmidheiny made a similar offer to the Municipality of Casale Monferrato, promising money if the municipality withdrew its civil action. The proposal went down in history as the 'Devil's Offer'.
DANIELA DEGIOVANNI – ONCOLOGIST
I was in the cancer ward (oncology) immersed in suffering. When they told me about the Devil's offer, I thought to myself: 'They've got it wrong, they can't have offered a pittance for everything that's happening in here'. That was the moment when the city really risked starting a virtual civil war.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
But if none of these methods had worked, even in this case, Schmidheiny's men came up with a 'creative' solution, this time resorting to an intricate diversion.
PAOLO RIVELLA – PP CONSULTANT TO THE ETERNIT CASE
Bellodi's lack of scruples is obvious when he says, when he writes: 'We could try a dangerous, difficult strategy of inciting the Greens and environmentalists against the use of asbestos in railway carriages. We must be careful, because if it comes out that we are the ones providing this input, then everything would rebound and we would be in a worse position than before. However, if we succeed, we would pass the lightning rod from us to someone else." He then concluded: "There would be another strategy, but it is so delicate that we must discuss it in person."
SIGFRIDO RANUCCI IN THE STUDIO
Schmidheiny attempted to influence public opinion by creating a network of informants that also operated close to the Public Prosecutor's Office. He then tried to buy the community's silence by offering the municipality of Casale Monferrato what went down in history as the Devil's Offer to withdraw from the civil action in the trial. In short, he had set up a system that was much more expensive than the equivalent of his offers to get people out of the trials, buy the silence of his victims, and get those who had joined the civil action out of the trials. Then, while his victims continued to breathe asbestos fibres and die of mesothelioma, once the Eternit company closed, he tried to create a green aura for himself.
He established a series of foundations aimed at protecting the environment. He purchased 120,000 hectares in Chile, but according to the indigenous Mapuche people, these had been acquired through intimidation, torture and even murder during the Pinochet dictatorship. In the 1990s, he was particularly active in the environmental field. He was even appointed super-advisor for business and industry at the General Secretariat of the UN Conference on Environment and Development. He then promoted the establishment of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, an organisation comprising over 160 of the world's leading companies and industries. At that time, in 1994, he created the Avina Foundation with the aim of contributing to the sustainable development of the planet, especially in Latin America. He encouraged alliances between civil and social partners and industries. He had one obsession: saving frogs.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
While in Italy he was trying to contain the reputational crisis caused by the Eternit disaster, in the rest of the world Schmidheiny was trying to build a new image for himself. Starting in the 1990s, the Swiss billionaire began to present himself as a champion of the environmental cause, railing against climate change and meat consumption.
STEPHAN SCHMIDHEINY - OWNER OF ETERNIT
This concerns the future of our planet and how we can help save it.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
To gain international recognition as a philanthropist and pioneer in discontinuing the use of asbestos, Schmidheiny set up a series of foundations with apparent humanitarian aims, the most famous of which is the Avina Foundation, which, according to press sources, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in sustainable development projects in Latin America.
SACHA BIAZZO
Did the asbestos victims' associations ever received any kind of support?
FERNANDA GIANNASI – ACTIVIST ASSOCIATION ASBESTOS VICTIMS IN BRAZIL
No, no. They told me that this was not a topic that interested Avina. None of the projects were for the people, they were only for them, the frogs and whatever nonsense.
SACHA BIAZZO
You mean a project to protect frogs?
Projects of no importance, sorry, I'm not very fond of frogs, so I don't get it.
SACHA BIAZZO
But the investigative hypothesis is that he shielded Eternit's profits, and therefore asbestos production, in foundations such as the Avina Foundation, which officially deal with the environment, but which also serve to clean up his image and prevent him from being attacked by a possible civil conviction?
PAOLO RIVELLA – PP CONSULTANT TO THE ETERNIT CASE
That's right, that's what happened. The asbestos issue was about avoiding bleeding to death over compensation. Disappearing from the radar has always been something of a passion of his.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
But if you look closely on the radar, you can still find some traces. The Avina Foundation, like other Schmidheiny family companies, appears in Offshore Leaks, the largest database of companies registered in Central American tax havens to evade taxation. It's a rather obvious trace, but one that must have escaped the numerous investigative journalists who had their environmental investigation projects funded by the Schmidheiny Foundation.
JULIO SAGUIER – OWNER OF THE NEWSPAPER "LA NACION"
I take my hat off to anyone who criticises him, and I think what Schmidheiny is going through is very unfair.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Avina's passion for investigative journalism disappears, however, when we visit their headquarters in Zurich.
SACHA BIAZZO [outside the Avina foundation]
Can we speak to someone from the Avina Foundation?
AVINA EMPLOYEE
Who would you like to speak to?
SACHA BIAZZO
Anyone
AVINA EMPLOYEE
What do you want from Avina?
Do you work for Avina?
AVINA EMPLOYEE
I am sitting in Avina's office right now.
SACHA BIAZZO
So do you work for Avina?
AVINA EMPLOYEE
Listen, what do you want?
SACHA BIAZZO
I would like to speak with you, may we come in?
AVINA EMPLOYEE
No, I'm coming downstairs.
SACHA BIAZZO
OK, thank you.
AVINA EMPLOYEE
No.
SACHA BIAZZO
No camera?
AVINA EMPLOYEE
No.
SACHA BIAZZO
Okay, okay, no camera, fine.
SACHA BIAZZO
But why are you closing the door? Are you afraid of the press?
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
But even this new image of the philanthropist, built up through the Avina Foundation, did not move the judges in Turin, who sentenced Schmidheiny to 18 years in prison in the second instance. Only the Court of Cassation stood between the Swiss billionaire and prison. And while the former Mossad agent's group plotted in the shadows to circumvent Italian justice, the thousands of victims who were waiting for the Supreme Court awaited this verdict as their last hope for finally receiving justice.
LAURA D'AMICO – LAWYER FOR ASBESTOS VICTIMS – ETERNIT CASE
I remember it well, that hearing at the Court of Cassation, those hours and hours of waiting and anxiety. Lawyers and representatives of asbestos victims' associations had also arrived from Brazil, Switzerland and France, because there was great expectation.
ALBERTO MATANO – TG1 PRESENTER – 19/11/2014
Eternit trial, surprise at the Court of Cassation, the Attorney General overturns the appeal conviction on the grounds of statute of limitations. There is dismay among the families of the 3,000 victims.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Against all expectations, in November 2014 the Court of Cassation overturned the previous convictions and declared the offence time-barred, fully accepting Schmidheiny's defence.
VIKTORIA SCHMIDHEINY - STEPHAN SCHMIDHEINY’s WIFE
Long live Stephan!
RAFFAELE GUARINIELLO - PROSECUTOR OF TURIN - 19/11/2014
But how can the victims and their families bear to hear the word 'statute of limitations'? This is not justice.
ROMANA BLASOTTI PAVESI – PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FAMILIES OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS – 19/11/2014
It's hard to swallow, really hard. I was very disappointed by the Court of Cassation, very disappointed indeed.
DANIELA DEGIOVANNI - ONCOLOGIST
All our hopes were dashed. From that moment on, I began to realise that we would probably never get justice.
ROSALBA ALTOPIEDI – PP CONSULTANT TO THE ETERNIT CASE
It really put an end to the entirely legitimate demands for justice that this community has been pursuing for many years.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
For the families of the thousands of asbestos victims in Italy and around the world
it was a wound that still struggles to heal today.
GIULIANA BUSTO – PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FAMILIES OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
The statute of limitations was requested directly by the prosecution, represented by the Deputy Attorney General of the Court of Cassation, Francesco Mauro Iacoviello, who had already been at the centre of controversy for judicial conclusions concerning other powerful figures who had ended up on trial, from Prime Minister Andreotti to Marcello Dell'Utri. He caused a stir with a statement in which he even questioned the crime of external collaboration with a mafia association. In the Eternit trial, he made another statement, declaring in his closing speech that the law must prevail over justice.
SACHA BIAZZO
Was there pressure on the judges and magistrates regarding that ruling?
FRANCESCO IACOVIELLO – FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE COURT OF CASSATION [at the door of his house]
Absolutely not. I have daughters who are journalists, I understand your work, I appreciate it very much, but please understand my confidentiality.
SACHA BIAZZO
May I ask why? I mean, now you...
FRANCESCO IACOVIELLO – FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE COURT OF CASSATION
No, no. Because I believe that the judicial function necessarily implies confidentiality. The documents speak for themselves.
SACHA BIAZZO
But now you're retired, aren't you?
FRANCESCO IACOVIELLO – FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL, COURT OF CASSATION
Yes, yes, now I am.
SACHA BIAZZO
So if you want...
RANCESCO IACOVIELLO – FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE COURT OF CASSATION
No, eh, absolutely not.
SACHA BIAZZO
FRANCESCO IACOVIELLO – FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE COURT OF CASSATION
But I think those words are obvious, because... the law that... makes the law. I
Excuse me, I wish you all the best in your work.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
After the meeting in autumn 2013, the exchange of emails between Schmidheiny's men and the Israelis had been interrupted for almost a year. In the morning after the Supreme Court ruling, the correspondence resumed. Schmidheiny's right-hand man, Heinz Pauli, thanked former Mossad agent Avner Azulay for the services he and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had provided.
EMAIL FROM HEINZ PAULI TO AVNER AZULAY – 20/11/2014
Dear Avner, I wish to inform you that last night the Supreme Court overturned the previous ruling of two courts in Turin that had sentenced STS to 18 years in prison. We are currently staying in a small hotel in the Swiss mountains, keeping a low profile until the storm passes. On behalf of Stephan Schmidheiny, I would also like to express my deep gratitude for the help you have offered and the efforts you have made in support of STS's case. Thank you very much for your support. Heinz Pauli
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Former Mossad agent Azulay informs former Prime Minister Barak, who then expresses his gratitude.
EMAIL BY AVNER AZULAY TO EHUD BARAK – 20/11/2014
Hello Ehud, end of story! All we did was offer our services. Best regards, Avner.
EMAIL FROM EHUD BARAK TO AVNER AZULAY – 20/11/2014
Avner, thank you. I wish him and the others all the best. Best regards, Ehud Barak.
SIGFRIDO RANUCCI IN THE STUDIO
We do not know what services former Mossad agent Azulay provided. Nor do we know what services were provided by Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and key figure in Israeli military intelligence. However, what emerges from these emails is disturbing. In short, denying justice to the relatives of the thousands of victims who inhaled asbestos fibres, and those who will still be there, is not a mistake, it is a horror. What we do know is that, on the one hand, we have emails in which former Mossad agents congratulate each other because an entrepreneur sentenced to 18 years for environmental disaster has, in short, got away with it. On the other hand, we have a request of acquittal due to the statute of limitations by the Deputy Attorney General of the Court of Cassation, Francesco Mauro Iacoviello. In short, Iacoviello, who has been involved in other controversial rulings, starting with the [former Italian Prime Minister] Andreotti trial, where he set the date of the crime of aiding and abetting the Mafia at 1980. Then there was the referral to the Court of Appeal of Marcello Dell'Utri, who had been accused of aiding and abetting the Mafia. Dell'Utri was later convicted. Then there is the acquittal of Judge Renato Squillante, who had been accused of putting pressure on other magistrates regarding certain rulings, including the Imi-Sir trial. According to Iacoviello, the bank accounts found abroad, containing money, did not prove corruption in his role as a magistrate but were intermediations between private individuals. Now, Iacoviello did not want to talk about the Eternit case. Nor did the president of the court wish to comment. However, we know that the court [Collegio giudicante] also included rapporteurs, other members of unquestionable moral integrity. So what is the truth? We do not have the means to say, but we know one thing for certain: that the network of former Mossad agents and Barak's network intervened to save another billionaire from prison.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Mark Rich was an unscrupulous American businessman with ties to Israel who facilitated Israeli intelligence operations. In the United States, Rich was charged with 65 counts and faced up to 300 years in prison in what was described as the largest tax dodging case in American history.
EURONEWS
Billionaire Marc Rich was known as the oil king and lived in Switzerland to escape charges of violating American sanctions by selling Iranian oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
It was Avner Azulay, the same former Mossad agent who helped Schmidheiny, who ensured Marc Rich's 17 years on the run. In that case too, former Mossad agent Azulay requested the intervention of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who mobilised the Israeli lobby to put pressure on the US government. And so it was that then-President Bill Clinton granted clemency to Marc Rich, considered one of America's six most wanted fugitives. Clinton himself admitted that Barak was behind Rich's presidential pardon. Clinton and Barak, along with Donald Trump, are the only two heads of government to appear in compromising photos and documents alongside paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
MEGHNAD BOSE - PROFESSOR OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM –
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
At the time, Marc Rich was a businessman who had helped the Israeli cause, and and that is what led Ehud Barak, then Prime Minister of Israel, to put pressure and lobby for Rich to be pardoned. It was one of the pardons that Bill Clinton granted on his last day in office.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
While Rich avoided prison, Schmidheiny still had ongoing legal proceedings in Italy. Last April [2025], he was sentenced again by the Turin Court of Appeal, this time to nine years and six months in prison for the manslaughter of the citizens of Casale Monferrato and the Eternit workers. The victims are once again awaiting the final ruling of the Court of Cassation. Schmidheiny has disappeared from the radar, becoming a kind of ghost, as he did before. Rumours about where he lives today are conflicting, with some placing him in Costa Rica, but our sources on the ground point us instead to where it all began, in Hurden, a small isthmus of land on Lake Zurich, a sort of low-tax enclave that over the years has attracted billionaires from all over the world. Even Alex Karp, the founder of Palantir, bought a house here.
ADRIAN KNOEPFLI – JOURNALIST AND HISTORIAN
All these people are looking for beautiful scenery and low taxes, which is why Hurden is such a special place, and then there's the lake. There probably isn't even an apartment or house left for ordinary people to rent.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Many of the foundations and companies linked to Schmidheiny are based in this tax rather than nature haven, from the registered office of the AVINA foundation to the Daros art agency and the Acorma finance company, whose former president, Frank Gulich, coordinated Schmidheiny's legal team before the Court of Cassation. Yet no one here seems to know him.
SACHA BIAZZO [at the door]
We are looking for Mr Schmidheiny, have you ever seen him?
PASSER-BY HURDEN
No.
SACHA BIAZZO
We are looking for Mr Schmidheiny.
HURDEN RESIDENT
I don't know.
SACHA BIAZZO
Have you never seen him?
HURDEN RESIDENT
I don't even know what it looks like, I don't know anything. Goodbye
SACHA BIAZZO
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
After our arrival, this village with a single road at the foot of the Swiss Alps suddenly turns into a stronghold worthy of a mafia film, where no one sees and no one hears. In fact, Schmidheiny's foundations deny knowing their founder.
AVINA/ACORMA EMPLOYEE
Hello.
SACHA BIAZZO
Hello, we are looking for Mr Stephan Schmidheiny.
AVINA/ACORMA EMPLOYEE
There is no one here named Schmidheiny.
SACHA BIAZZO
Avina? The Avina Foundation?
AVINA/ACORMA EMPLOYEE
He's not here, what can I say?
SACHA BIAZZO
You don't know who he is?
AVINA/ACORMA EMPLOYEE
No.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
Yet, according to Swiss records, Schmidheiny's house is just across the street, at this seemingly anonymous address where we try to knock.
SACHA BIAZZO [at the door]
We are looking for Mr Schmidheiny.
HEINZ PAULI – FINANCIER AND SCHMIDHEINY'S RIGHT-HAND MAN
He's not here.
SACHA BIAZZO
We are looking for Mr Schmidheiny.
HEINZ PAULI – FINANCIER AND SCHMIDHEINY'S RIGHT-HAND MAN
Why?
SACHA BIAZZO
We are Italian journalists.
HEINZ PAULI – FINANCIER AND SCHMIDHEINY'S RIGHT-HAND MAN
He doesn't live here, goodbye!
SACHA BIAZZO
We found that this is his address.
SACHA BIAZZO OFF CAMERA
The person who opens the door has a familiar face. Even though many years have passed, we recognise him. It is indeed him: Heinz Pauli, the right-hand man of the Swiss billionaire who liaised with former Mossad agent Azulay. Like Azulay, Heinz Pauli had also worked for Marc Rich, the billionaire with ties to Israel who was a fugitive in Switzerland and who, thanks to the intervention of the Israeli lobby activated by Azulay and Barak, had escaped a potential 300-year prison sentence.
SACHA BIAZZO
Mr Pauli! Sorry, I didn't recognise you.
HEINZ PAULI – FINANCIER AND RIGHT-HAND MAN OF SCHMIDHEINY
Go away or I'll call the police!
SACHA BIAZZO
Mr Pauli, correct? I just have one question!
HEINZ PAULI – FINANCIER AND SCHMIDHEINY'S RIGHT-HAND MAN
No! No! No! Shut up!
SACHA BIAZZO
Why did you contact a former Mossad officer to influence the trial in Italy against Mr Schmidheiny? You contacted Mr Azulay, a former Mossad agent, and tried to influence the trial in Italy, at the Court of Cassation!
SIGFRIDO RANUCCI IN THE STUDIO
So, Schmidheiny informed us, through his solicitor, that Heinz Pauli is a friend of his, but that he never had any official or even informal mandate to take any action to protect his legal proceedings, and therefore not to contact Azulay or Mr Barak. He also denies having paid any money for this purpose. Schmidheiny then refused to speak to us, which is a shame because there is one issue that remains unresolved: he also is facing a second trial in Italy, Eternit 2. The ruling will go to the Court of Cassation in the coming months. In April 2025, Schmidheiny was sentenced Schmidheiny was sentenced on appeal to 9 years and 6 months' imprisonment for manslaughter for the 258 people who died between 1989 and 2014 and for the deaths of 392 people who were victims of exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibres in the Casale Monferrato area. In short, the appeal ruling also lowered the compensation claims: only five million Euros for Casale, the municipality of Casale Monferrato, 500,000 for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and a few tens of thousands of euros for each individual victim, including associations and relatives of the victims. This is because, according to the appeal judges, the entrepreneur foresaw the possibility that workers could develop serious, fatal diseases, but accepted the risk that this could happen. As was the case twelve years ago, the statute of limitations hangs over the calls for justice. If the Court of Cassation does not rule by June, it is likely that Schmidheiny will get away with it once again. One question remains open, however: the one that emerged from the emails we showed this evening. Is it possible that a network of Mossad agents could influence the judiciary? We will return to this topic with other exclusive documents, but in the meantime, it is the duty of every single citizen to defend the integrity and independence of the judiciary from any political interference, from any other country.
[end of the relevant section of the programme]
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