World champion Moreno Argentin's life has taken a turn having been given a one-year jail term (Photo: Sirotti)
One of Sean Kelly’s greatest rivals and the man he beat to win the 1992 edition of Milan SanRemo, Moreno Argentin, has been sentenced to a year in prison after being found guilty of fraud.
The 55-year-old Italian, who was crowned world champion in 1986, was also hit with a heavy fine of €310,000 after selling a retired couple an apartment which was already subject to a mortgage.
A report published in the popular Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reports an estate agent linked to the fraud was also sentenced to a year in prison.
Argentin became involved in the bizarre case as he was the director of the property company Sviluppo Residenziale srl, stated the report in the newspaper.
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He was accused of defrauding a couple who had invested their savings into the apartment in the town of Fossalta di Portogruaro in 2011, and were said to have been reassured by Argentin’s involvement in the deal.
But they later learnt that arrangement was subject to a mortgage and, when Argentin’s company went bust, the couple had to buy their own apartment at an auction for €280,000.
The estate agent embroiled in the saga, Mauro Ternici and Argentin testified the couple were aware of the mortgage and there had therefore been no fraud, but the judge rejected their defence.
Argentin is one of the most decorated riders of his generation and as well as his world championships win from 1986 he also won 13 stages of the Giro d’Italia, and one in the Tour de France.
On the Classics front he was equally prolific, taking Liege-Bastogne-Liege four times as well as Lombardy and Flanders once each. He beat Stephen Roche to the win in Liege in 1987.
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