The wind energy king: from electrician to developer of multi-million euro wind farms

 An empire worth over a billion euros built in just a few years, from his hometown Alcamo, a buffer city between the provinces of Palermo and Trapani. Vito Nicastri, who died a few days ago, was one of the most talked-about figures in recent years and often under the scrutiny of investigators. There were traces that allegedly linked him to certain political circles, but more importantly, to the mafia of Matteo Messina Denaro, with whom his name was frequently associated. Vito Nicastri is no more, the man who, according to many investigations, embodied a new type of mafia, a "grey area," hybrid, able to keep up with the times, focus on green energy, yet simultaneously forge pacts with politicians and mobsters. Let's recount his life.

FROM ELECTRICIAN TO DEVELOPER - In 1973, not yet eighteen, he attended the final year of accounting school. After graduation, he began working as a farmer-member of the cooperative "La gioventù." Together with his two brothers, he started working as an electrician and plumber in some electrical installation and maintenance companies. In the early 1990s, his first investigation began. A corruption story from which he emerged almost unscathed by revealing the bribes paid to politicians to build solar energy plants. In 1994, Nicastri disclosed to the Palermo Prosecutor's Office the great business revolving around photovoltaics. At the time, he said he had paid three billion old lire to the personal secretary of the Industry assessor. That money was to secure the funding needed for installing the plants and finance the electoral campaigns of the PSI. Thanks to his confessions, Nicastri bargained for a sentence of one year and six months. In 2000, the business of alternative electricity production plants (photovoltaic and wind) exploded, and Nicastri became a "developer," an exclusively Italian figure who plans everything needed to create these renewable energy plants, both technically and economically. In a few years, he became the national leader in the sector. Between 2002 and 2006, he obtained the highest number of concessions in Sicily to build wind farms totaling a thousand megawatts, later sold to major operators in the sector.

THE LORD OF THE WIND - Vito Nicastri began to be seriously talked about when the Financial Times described him as "The Lord of the Wind." But over the years, prosecutors across half of Sicily investigated him. In his province of Trapani, anti-mafia investigators considered him very close to Matteo Messina Denaro. The Castelvetrano boss was an innovator and would have entered the massive renewables business thanks to Nicastri. However, the entrepreneur from Alcamo was more than just a frontman. He was someone who took orders from no one, creating conditions to realize wind and photovoltaic parks by weaving a network of relationships not only with the criminal world but also with the political one.

ACCUSATIONS OF MAFIA ASSOCIATION - For years, investigators accused Nicastri of "association" with the clans, which translated into shared interests, aiding, and exchanging mutual favors. In every investment area, Nicastri would have found a criminal partner: from Matteo Messina Denaro in the province of Trapani to Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo in Palermo to the 'ndranghetisti of Platì, Africo, and San Luca. In this latest investigation, the statements of the pentito Lorenzo Cimarosa, the first pentito of the Messina Denaro family, indicated him as one of the financiers of the Castelvetrano boss's fugitive status. The collaborator of justice recounted a bag full of money that Nicastri allegedly gave to the mafia boss through another man of honor, Michele Gucciardi. In 2009, operation "Eolo" revealed the business-mafia connections for the construction of some wind farms in the Mazara del Vallo area: Nicastri's name appeared in the transactions of the companies involved in the investigation. Nicastri was also involved and arrested in the "Gone with the Wind" operation conducted by the Avellino Prosecutor's Office. The charges included committed and attempted fraud against the State to obtain public funding for the construction of wind farms.

THE RECORD SEIZURE - On September 13, 2010, the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate seized assets worth 1.3 billion euros from Nicastri. The seizure included 43 companies and company shares related to the alternative energy production sector, 100 real estate properties including villas and buildings, land and warehouses, 7 vehicles including cars, motorcycles, and boats, and 66 "financial assets" including bank accounts, securities deposits, investment funds, and insurance policies.

In 2012, the Alcamo entrepreneur was arrested in the "Broken Wings" operation for a bribery ring involving colleagues for the opening of wind energy plants. Nicastri's name began to be associated with Matteo Messina Denaro, also due to a pizzino that read: "Nicastri of Alcamo ok." According to investigators, Nicastri was at the center of a triangle where the contracting parties were entrepreneurs, politicians, and the mafia.

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS - From the PSI to the League, reaching certain levels requires contacts. Among the political relationships maintained by Nicastri was one with Honorable Mimmo Turano. When the massive asset seizure occurred, the report sent to the Trapani Court by the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate included a dedicated paragraph accompanying the seizure, focusing on the then President of the Province of Trapani. In 1992, Turano was the sole administrator and partner of "TEMA srl," a construction company where Nicastri's first wife, Pasqua Lucchese, also appeared. In 1994, he was a statutory auditor in Tea srl, also in the construction sector. The company was formed following the liquidation of another company, "La Sout Fork," whose assembly president was Giovanni Ditta, a Trapani accountant identified by investigators as close to Matteo Messina Denaro and Trapani boss Vincenzo Virga.

BUSINESS TRIP TO TUNISIA - Confirming the connections between Turano and Nicastri was a business trip to Tunisia on a private plane. Participants included Vito Nicastri, Gioacchino Lo Presti (former president of Megaservice and former Airgest board member), Filippo Inzerillo (later also on the Megaservice board), F.B. (a wind energy entrepreneur whose name appeared in transactions of companies involved in the Eolo operation), and Davide Fiore, a partner in several ventures with Nicastri. Nothing was known about that trip, but some members of Turano's future administration were already present: Lo Presti as president of the Megaservice board of directors, accompanied by Inzerillo and Davide Fiore as Sports and Tourism Councillor.

THE LAST VERDICT - The "King of Wind" Vito Nicastri, accused of external complicity in a mafia association and fictitious ownership of assets, was acquitted by the fourth section of the Palermo Court of Appeal from the charge of aggravated extortion a few months ago. The Prosecutor General had requested 10 years and 8 months for him. The trial stemmed from the Pionica operation.

In the first instance, the Palermo gup sentenced Nicastri to 9 years in prison also for external complicity. The Pionica investigation, which led to Nicastri's arrest, dates back to March 2018. In 2019, Nicastri's name emerged in a corruption investigation involving former League undersecretary Armando Siri, former League consultant Paolo Arata, along with his son Francesco Paolo, regional official Alberto Tinnirello, and Milanese entrepreneur Antonello Barbieri. For this investigation, the wind energy king bargained for a sentence of 2 years and ten months in December 2019. "How many people have I paid in my life? Many... An authorization, let's say, issued by the official was worth a few million euros to me, so giving, without being asked, 10 thousand euros, 5 thousand euros, whatever it was, was an act of generosity... of gratitude. Only one refused them, but the others, perhaps with a bit of shyness or something else..." This is how Nicastri spoke to prosecutors in one of the interrogations in recent years. In the last months of his life, the wind energy king began to reveal some things. Anecdotes and tricks of someone who knew how to navigate well between legal and illegal lines. The wind energy king is now dead and takes many secrets of that system he used to build an empire from Alcamo with him.