Il gioiellino (2011)

Leda is a large agribusiness operating across five continents, listed on the stock exchange and constantly expanding into new markets and sectors—a real “little gem,” according to its founder and owner, Amanzio Rastelli. Rastelli blindly entrusts the management of Leda to a few close associates, including accountant Ernesto Botta. Rastelli has an old-fashioned view of company ownership and sometimes alters the accounts to benefit some of his private ventures. Rastelli’s niece, Laura, who has a degree and an impressive résumé, is assigned to work alongside accountant Botta, and things still seem to be going well: the group weathers several major crises and stays afloat. But the international market also demands knowing when to give up on investments that are not profitable. Rastelli refuses to do so, putting the entire company at risk as it sinks deeper and deeper into debt. By the time Leda is considered doomed, the executives begin hiding some of the capital in private accounts and investments, to ensure a degree of financial security for themselves when the whole thing blows up. Botta and Rastelli, however, are sentimentally attached to the company and cannot accept watching it die, so they decide to falsify the accounts in order to present the outside world with a solid company that could therefore attract financing. But the scheme does not seem credible for long enough to put the accounts back in order. Rastelli comes clean and tells the politicians everything; the Guardia di Finanza storms Leda’s headquarters and finds them in complete disarray: in an attempt to destroy evidence of wrongdoing, the employees have destroyed documents and computers. The only office left untouched is Botta’s, where he has worked until the very last moment to devise a viable recovery plan for the company—though by then it is already too late.