Villa Pamphili Murders, Rexal Ford Gets Public Funding for a Film. Giuli: "Dismay and Anger"

The Minister of Culture: "We will ascertain all responsibility and act accordingly"

Francis Kaufmann, alias Rexal Ford - investigated for the murder of Anastatia Trofimova and her daughter Andromeda, found dead in Villa Pamphili , Rome - is said to have received over 800 thousand euros in tax credit from the Italian Ministry of Culture for a film in 2020. This news, according to the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, "doubles the dismay and anger in the face of a system of film financing that has allowed carelessness and waste in the past. These are unforgivable 'distractions', a legacy that previous governments have left us with respect to tax credit".

" We have already intervened and are intervening - he continued - with greater determination to reform a law in whose folds scammers and perhaps even worse people have enriched themselves. All this to the detriment of Italian taxpayers and the numerous entertainment professionals who work in full legitimacy. We will no longer allow this to happen, we will ascertain every responsibility and we will behave accordingly: with rigor and discernment, to protect the honor of Italian Cinema and eradicate every pocket of parasitism".

The story

The news was launched by Open, the online newspaper directed by Franco Bechis that also reports all the data and timing. According to the newspaper, the film "Stars of the Night", a comedy written and directed by Ford , obtained a tax credit of 869,595.90. A credit valid for the year 2020, against a declared expense of almost 3 million: 2,790,210.88 to be precise. The decree dates back to November 27, 2020 and was signed by Nicola Borrelli, who in the yellow-red government led by Giuseppe Conte, saw Dario Franceschini as head of the ministry "for cultural heritage and activities and for tourism".

According to Open, Ford's film project "was presented by an international production company from Malta, Tintagel Films Llc, which is precisely the one that Kaufmann invented with the false identity of Rexal Ford. He sent the ministry a defined project of the film, the necessary accounting review of the costs incurred, the request for financing and his American passport. Which we now know to be false" and that the American "to obtain the approval of the ministry's film directorate, was assisted by an Italian co-producer, the company Coevolutions based in Rome and the owner, Marco Perotti, presented the application. The plan stated that the tax credit would be used the following year, in 2021. From checks carried out by Open with the ministry, in reality the final application was presented in 2023, also using a loophole in the old legislation: international works had access to the tax credit without the obligation to deposit a copy of the film's already shot material to provide tangible proof of the production costs. According to Open, once the final approval was obtained from ministry, the tax credit was actually used because it resulted in a transfer of the credit to the bank after regular investigation by the credit institution".

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