The judge for preliminary inquiries in Palermo, Vincenzina Massa, has suspended lawyer Giovanna Livreri from practising her profession for two months. The suspended lawyer was previously the commissioner for the Fiera del Mediterraneo.

She is also involved in investigations over the Ciancinimo scandal. This time, she is being charged with the aggravated and continued fraud of two of her clients, from whom she obtained e450,000, making them promise they would give her a further e650,000 – which they never did.

Lawyer Livreri is also accused of falsification because she produced a false document that she intended to use in her defence.

She is accused of scaring her clients into giving her the money, telling them that they were being investigated for Mafia-connected crimes, and that they were about to be arrested and their property taken. Very frightened, the two women clients did not sleep in their homes for two weeks, at the end of 2004, and began taking steps to enable them to transfer their money to Malta.

However, there were, in fact, no investigations nor were there any plans for their arrest. Lawyer Livreri’s husband, tax law professor Giuseppe Frisella, is also under investigation.