The Rayton Fissore was employed in the Piedmont automotive industry, operating from 1976 to 1992.
HISTORY
After the death of Bernardo Fissore and his wife who caused the closure of the car body shop, the plant and facilities were taken over by his daughter Fernanda and her husband Giuliano (or Giulio) Malvino who in 1976 founded Rayton Fissore in Cherasco. Initially, the new company envisaged the stylistic development of cars for external customers, such as the Fiat Ritmo Cabrio [1] or the Alfa 75 Wagon [2] (prototypes that never reached mass production). It was only in 1985 that the company presented, at the Turin show, the first model entirely built and marketed under its own brand. The Magnum was the first motor vehicle built using the patented Univis construction technique [3] [4], which envisages the use of standardized sections with reduced costs.
In 1989 the company was taken over by Gregorio Maggiali [5], a construction contractor.
The collapse of Dominion ( CRACK PARMALAT)
The company went bankrupt, leaving insolvencies for 35 billion lire in 1992 [6], shortly after it was bought by Roberto Caprioglio through its financial Dominion Trust Corporation Limited (which in turn had ended up in bankruptcy in 1991 for over 200 billion lire [7] [8]). During the investigations for fraudulent bankruptcy, Caprioglio accused Gianni Zandano [9] (the then president of the Sanpaolo bank of Turin) of having “induced” him to take over from Maggiali Rayton Fissore, already in serious financial difficulties to avoid its closure [10] [11 ]. The then council president Ciriaco De Mita [12], Carlo Fracanzani [13] (Minister of State Holdings) and Mino Martinazzoli [14] (defense minister) were also investigated, who, again according to Caprioglio, had pressured rescue of the company that would have been used to hijack to the Christian Democrats illicit funds from companies owned by colluding industrialists, including Parmalat [15]. The investigators ascertained in fact the hidden payments that could not be justified otherwise [15] [16]. In return, the company would be favored in the awarding of contracts for the supply of cars to various public bodies, including the police, the forest ranger and ENEL [12]. The judiciary also considered Zodano [17], De Mita, Fracanzani and Martinazzoli unrelated to the facts and their positions were closed.
Two of the sons of Gregorio Maggiali (who died in 1990) and Maurizio Montali, a friend of the Maggiali family, all former administrators of Rayton Fissorei were also investigated for fraudulent bankruptcy [6]. On July 17, 2001 the trial ended in first instance with an eight-year sentence for Caprioglio and a six-year term for Mario Fontana, Dominion’s vice-president and chief executive of Rayton Fissore [18]. On January 27, 2004 the Court of Appeal of Turin converted the penalties respectively in 9 years and four months and in six years and six months.
After the failure
In 1992 the property was again taken over by Giulio Malvino and the company name was changed to Fissore Co [19].
In 1993 Fissor Co. purchased from EFIM [20] the Oto Melara factory (a factory built and never commissioned) of San Ferdinando, in the Gioia Tauro plain, where it intended to build the Magnum shells and a new sports car, the T8 [21], under the Isotta Fraschini brand, whose rights it had acquired from Finmeccanica for 3.5 billion euro [20]. With the agreement, Fissore Co. also hired the 250 employees of the previous management, then in layoffs [22] [23]. However, the T8 never reached series production [24]
on 30 March 2000 the Guardia di Finanza arrested Malvino for false accounting, fraudulent bankruptcy and fraud to the European Community in relation to 20 billion lire paid under Law 488/92 [25] [26] [27] for the Isotta Fraschini but, after a trial that ended in 2011, he was acquitted of charges [28]. In 2004 the San Ferdinando company failed [29] without ever having produced cars with this brand [30]. In eleven years, only 400 armored magnums were built for the State Police [29].
With the assignment of off-road construction rights and the failure to produce the T8, Fissore Co. ceased to be a manufacturer, renamed to T.A.S. Fix and resume the initial activity of prototype development on behalf of third parties. On 5 February 2013 Malvino was again arrested, together with some directors of De Tomaso, who had commissioned the T.A.S. studies of engeneering and development of the new Deauville model [31] [32] [33] (built using the Univis patent [34] [35]), for undue perception and the illicit use of 13 million euros of public funds. According to the investigators, part of the contributions (paid by the Piedmont Region) served to pay inflated bills issued by T.A.S., which then made the money to De Tomaso itself through false increases in capital and rights to use the Fissore brand.
The Magnum after the Fissore
In 1997 Fissore Co. sold the Cherasco plant and the off-road construction rights to Magnum Industriale s.r.l., a newly established company whose shareholders were a Bra body shop and an armored glass manufacturer in Padua [22]. Already in February 1999, however, the unions of the Cuneo factory directed a strike due to salary payments, the slowdown in production and the difficulties in dealing with suppliers. In the spring of that year the activity of the plant was interrupted and in the summer, the company was put into voluntary liquidation and the approximately 40 employees placed in mobility [19].
On September 26, 2000, the Magnum Industriale was purchased by the US company Laforza Automobiles Inc., which since 1989 imported the Magnum into North America. The new company based in Cherasco was renamed Laforza International S.p.A. The production of the Magnum, equipped with Ford V8 engines, continued until 2003, when production ceased definitively.
MODELCAR MAGNUM
UNIQUE HANDMADE DSM – LAFORZA GT V8 4WD 1995
EDICOLA – RAYTON FISSORE MAGNUM 2.5 TDI POLIZIA 1997
ARTIGIANALE – Rayton Fissore Magnum Laforza 4×4 SUV 4WD
gamas43 