Ferrari and Stellantis chair to perform community service, pay €183m to settle Italian tax dispute

John Elkann, chair of Ferrari and Stellantis, has agreed to perform one year of community service and, together with his siblings Lapo and Ginevra, pay €183 million (£159 million) to settle an inheritance tax dispute with Italian authorities, prosecutors said.

The agreement, accepted by prosecutors on Monday, followed an investigation into the estate of Elkann’s grandmother, Marella Caracciolo, who died in 2019. Elkann’s lawyer said the deal does not constitute an admission of liability and that the request for probation aims to bring the matter to a swift close.

“If this request is granted, the proceedings against him will be suspended, and upon the successful completion of the probationary period, will conclude with a ruling extinguishing all the charges for which John Elkann is currently under investigation,” Paolo Siniscalchi, the Elkanns’ attorney, said in a statement. He added that the settlement with tax authorities likewise does not amount to an admission of responsibility. Siniscalchi said similar outcomes had been sought for Elkann’s siblings.

Prosecutors had alleged the three siblings failed to declare about €1 billion in assets and €248.5 million in income on the basis that their grandmother was a Swiss resident. As part of the move to resolve the case, prosecutors asked a judge to drop criminal proceedings against Lapo and Ginevra Elkann; media reports said the case was dismissed. A civil dispute over parts of the wider family estate remains ongoing.

As part of the probation request, Elkann must propose where to undertake community service. Reuters reported those placements could include work at a centre for the elderly or at a facility assisting people with drug addiction.

The tax dispute is linked to a longer-running family disagreement stemming from the estate of Gianni Agnelli, the longtime Fiat boss and Elkann’s grandfather. Gianni Agnelli built Fiat into a major industrial group and died more than two decades ago. The siblings’ mother, Margherita Agnelli, inherited about €1.2 billion and has been pursuing legal steps to overturn agreements she signed in 2004 aimed at directing funds to her five children from a second marriage rather than to her three eldest.

John Elkann, the eldest of Margherita Agnelli’s children, has served on Fiat’s board since 1997, was appointed chair of Ferrari in 2018 and became chair of Stellantis in 2021. The settlement resolves the criminal tax dispute in part but leaves civil litigation tied to the broader family inheritance issues unresolved.

Prosecutors and the Elkanns did not provide further detail on the allocation of the settlement payment or on the timeline for judicial approval of the probation arrangement. The attorney for Margherita Agnelli said her client welcomed the outcome of the tax and criminal proceedings.