Scinto and Citracca to stand trial in Vini Zabù 'pay to ride' extortion case
Angelo Citracca and Luca Scinto will face trial for extortion following a four-year investigation into an alleged ‘pay to ride’ scheme at the Vini Zabù team, which folded in 2021 amid a series of doping cases.
The investigation into the team began in 2021 after Matteo De Bonis tested positive for EPO, which triggered a 30-day suspension as it was Vini Zabù’s second doping case within a twelve-month period.
Vini Zabù handed back its invitation to the Giro d’Italia, and it subsequently launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance unspecified new anti-doping protocols for the team, raising a total of €339. The squad closed its doors at the end of the season after 13 years in the professional peloton.
The investigation by Italy’s NAS police unit initially focused on doping offences, but the scope of inquiry was widened to include extortion when riders alleged that they had been forced to return some of their wages to team management in order to race for Vini Zabù.
La Nazione reports that riders had alleged “strong psychological pressure and harassing practices exerted by management to induce them to return part of their wages.”
Following a preliminary hearing in Pistoia this week, La Nazione has reported that Citracca, the former team manager, has been indicted on charges of extortion against an athlete and attempted extortion against the athlete’s wife and another athlete.
Lead sports director Luca Scinto, currently manager of the Franco Ballerini Lucchini Energy junior team, has been indicted for extortion with Citracca and for the receipt of stolen goods, with La Nazione reporting that he was in possession of papers stamped by the local health authority, “which he allegedly used to submit medical requests for performance-enhancing drugs.”
De Bonis’ former sports director, Davide Del Sarto, has also been indicted for attempted extortion with Citracca.
Scinto and six riders from the Vini Zabù squad were acquitted of charges of doping during a race in Dubai due to the inadmissibility of the evidence, while the court in Pistoia has deemed that another doping charge falls under the jurisdiction of prosecutors in Forlì.
Citracca was previously suspended for three months in 2017 after the Italian Cycling Federation found him guilty of charging riders to race for his team. The Italian denied any wrongdoing.
The issue of ‘pay to ride’ schemes in Italian cycling had been exposed in a series of articles in Il Corriere della Sera by journalist Marco Bonarrigo, with Elia Viviani among those to give evidence against the practice.
The trial of Scinto, Citracca and Del Sarto is scheduled to begin on May 22, 2026.
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