Althea Racing’s Genesio Bevilacqua has issued the following press release regarding the allegations of commercial and social security frauds by Ceramica Althea.

Civita Castellana, 11th October 2011: With regard to news that has been published in the press with relation to Ceramica Althea Spa, it should be noted that the undersigned is not involved in any inquiry and neither has he received any notification of an impending investigation.

There is no direct or indirect, present or future involvement of Althea Racing Srl, which is a totally autonomous entity, distinct from Ceramica Althea Spa.

The management of Ceramica Althea Spa has the utmost faith in the actions of the court. On the completion of any investigation, the court will certainly ascertain the legitimate operations of the Company.

Genesio Bevilacqua
Althea Racing Srl

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With the breaking news that has involved Althea Ceramics and by consequence World Superbike and Superstock team Althea Racing has provoked a response by team owner Genesio Bevilacqua who is insisting that the company is innocent of any wrongdoings and that the accusations are ‘entirely false,’ while others have been ‘artfully crafted.’

Bevilacqua also said, “on our part no crime has been committed nor have we been advised by the police that there is any specific offense, as these investigations were initiated to verify rumors started by our competitors and so far the investigators are only speculating.”

“We’ve always import ceramics from China and other countries and we’ve always regularly sold and marketed these products under the specific country where they were manufactured. This is a direct attack on us and has no basis, unless it is due to hidden jealousies and rivalries that often result in similar industrial situations. The people laid off are just over 40 and due to the fact that we have continued in recent times to sell and import from abroad, we’ve been able to sustain our business and ensure the remaining staff employment continuity. The rest of the redundacy layoffs are a very common problem in this period of crisis, not only in Italy, and many companies in all sectors make use of it.

“Regarding the allegations we have already started legal action to pursue in every manner everyone involved who has damaged the image of the company,” continued Bevilacqua. “Unfortunately in Italy “witch hunts” are not uncommon, especially when the economic and financial climate is unhealthy.”

“It is also impossibile not to note that these allegations come from rival entrepreneurs and just days after our victory in the Superbike World Championship, it’s hard not to think in these cases of the historic words of Oscar Wilde: “people will forgive everything except success … “

Source | motoblog.it

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Just last week Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano took home the 2011 World Superbike and World Superstock championships racing under Genesio Bevilacqua’s Althea Racing banner and now Ceramica Althea who sponsors the two teams, has been accused of commercial and social security frauds which is shaking the entire ceramics district in Italy.

Bevilacqua founded Althea Ceramics who make bathroom fixtures back in 1994, before turning to racing management, and now the company he founded has now been accused of commercial fraud by importing sanitary fixtures (toilets, sinks, bathtubs, shower plates) from China and branding them with the company’s name, Made in Italy and CE marques and selling the counterfeit goods for more than ten times their worth, a highly lucrative scam.

All this as the company was working with a skeleton work crew, while between seventy and eighty of their workers have been on redundacy pay, funded entirely by INPS (Italian Social Security) for the past three years. Now INPS has accused the company for aggravated fraud and wants back the over 2.000.000 euros plus interest they’ve paid out so far.

At the moment Althea Racing appears to be a distinct and separate financial reality from Althea Ceramics and not involved in the scandal, while the financial police investigators continue their work as other ceramic companies are being probed.

Source | blitzquotidiano and motoblog.it

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Davide Giugliano took the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup championship crown yesterday at Magny Cours and Althea Racing team owner Genesio Bevilacqua has decided to reward his Superstock champion with a Superbike race at the final round of the season at Portimao.

Giugliano won four out of the seven races and took three third place podiums this season to win the title and he also tested Ducati’s new Superbike, the 1199 Panigale at the Mugello.

Bevilacqua is expected to field the 22-year old Superstock champion alongside Carlos Checa in the 2012 championship.

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Althea Racing’s team owner Genesio Bevilacqua sort of reminds us of Davide Tardozzi (who was sniffing around Misano when several Superbike teams were testing two weeks ago), a straight talker with very firm ideas regarding World Superbike racing.

This video interview was done on Saturday at Imola just after Carlos Checa took an amazing Superpole record on hard tires, and Bevilacqua (which translated means drink water) touched several bases, which we’ve believe you’ll find interesting, so we’re giving you a recap of his opinions.

The Althea Racing manager is not at all convinced that the one bike rule, which should be impleted in 2012 as a cost saving measure will make that much of a difference. According to his calculations, teams who prefer the technical aspects of racing as his team does, compared to those who look at it solely from a business point of view will not be advantaged and believes there will be very little savings, budget wise.

Continue reading: Althea Racing's Genesio Bevilacqua interview

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Silverstone was all sunshine and lollipops yesterday for Carlos Checa, Althea Racing and Ducati. Checa took a win for his 100th Superbike race, Ducati has 301 wins in its booty, while Genesio Bevilacqua, the general manager of Althea may be happy on the outside, but is seething regarding the usual claims and laments that the Ducati twins are again at an advantage.

I think that our rivals should clarify their declarations as they continue to insist that they believe us to be at an advantage when the opposite is in fact true,” said Bevilacqua. “What we bring to the floor is our strength as a team, a great rider and a bike that has less acceleration. We also lose at least 12km/h of top speed at every track. I would therefore like to see more respect being paid when it comes to the hard work of our team and our rider. We will continue to work to achieve our objectives and Ducati’s objective.”

Bevilacqua’s statement may have something to do with the fact that Checa’s bikes were thoroughly inspected twice during this weekend, but were cleared from any technical hanky-panky.

Carlos Checa - (1st and 1st)

“It was a wonderful day. I didn’t believe that it would be possible to win here, but we managed to do it twice over! To achieve the 300th win for Ducati is an important result and we are all very happy to have been able to repeat this in race two. I thank everyone involved, my team, Ducati and all the sponsors. I also heard that I have now completed 100 SBK races. I didn’t know this but the important thing is that I still feel young and am not yet 100 years old! We have a good advantage for now but as we all know, it is hard to build up points and easy to lose them. We now head to tracks where I have had some good results in the past but we are taking it one step at a time; nothing is a given. It’s been a fantastic weekend that I will remember forever. Now the team can go on holiday in a more relaxed state of mind.”

Continue reading: Rider quotes from WSBK's 9th round at Silverstone

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