A jeweler who siphoned his own brand: €2M diverted, P.F. srl bankrupt, founder convicted

Pianegonda was founded in 1994 in Vicenza and became known in the second half of the Nineties for minimalist collections combining gold and silver with gems — an Italian jewelry brand with international fame. The group's parent company was P.F. srl.

In February 2014 the Guardia di Finanza searched Franco Pianegonda's home and the offices of his companies in an investigation into pre-bankruptcy fraudulent bankruptcy. Under the initial hypothesis he had diverted jewelry worth about €4 million. Two months later, in April 2014, the tribunal declared P.F. srl bankrupt.

In October 2015 Bros Manifatture — the Italian jewelry group behind Rosato, Brosway and S'Agapò — acquired the Pianegonda brand. President Lanfranco Beleggia said the company would bring it 'back to its past splendor', keeping the same laboratories and appointing a new creative director; the first collection of the new course was unveiled in fall 2016.

The criminal case ran for eight years. In July 2022 Franco Pianegonda pleaded guilty to fraudulent bankruptcy before GUP judge Roberto Venditti and was sentenced to one year and eight months, suspended. The court accepted that he had diverted goods worth about €2 million to his own Pianegonda USA and had stripped the value out of P.F. srl.