Althea Ceramics:The embarrassing Italian case of counterfeit chinese thrones

[CAlexio]

A shadow has been cast over Althea Racing's SBK championship, and it is a long and typically Italian shadow of corruption, lies, and tax evasion.

Most people may not know, but the "Althea" in the "Althea Ducati" of Carlos Checa is a ceramics company, most known for its bathroom fixtures.. yep, the Checa's bike is sponsored by an Italian toiletmaker. One obvious question which comes to mind is exactly how a toilet manufacturer, can afford to sponsor a full-bore racing team? Well it is emerging that this manufacturer is being investigated by the Italian version of the IRS, for cheating the Italian taxpayer/government in order to achieve this, how you ask? A genius plan which consisted of actually furloughing its workers, stopping production, while then importing chinese toilets/sinks etc into its "production facility", imprinting each unit with a fake EC sticker and a "This Shitter is Made in Italy" badge, before shipping these thrones out the door for the world to shit on... er, sit on.

It has also emerged that the 80 workers in the Althea factory have been in "cassa integrazione" which is a uniquely italian invention... rather than laying off workers, a company can go to the government, claim that it needs to close down temporarily, and the government pays the workers approx 75% of their salary for sitting at home on their asses. Althea has had its workers in cassa integrazione for years apparently, while keeping a skeleton crew to stamp fake stickers on its imported chinese toilets... thereby enjoying massive profits by purchasing cheap knockoffs which it resold at high prices, and having the italian gov't cover its payroll... but it doesn't stop there!

The genius of this is that some of this money was allegedly used to run the Althea Ducati Racing Team, thereby generating enormous brand recognition guaranteeing even more sales. As an italian myself, i can't tell you how classically Italian this story is, and also how disgusting... this IS why I don't live in Italy anymore. If all of this comes out as verified, it will also be an interesting slap to Ducati's face, as it's thinly veiled "non-official" team now tarnishes Ducati's World Championship SBK effort, and highlights how poor the decision to pull out of SBK was in the first place.

One final interesting detail to laugh at... Genesio Bevilacqua (owner of Althea) says that Althea Racing and Althea Ceramics are completely distinct and separate entities, and have nothing to do with each other.... which brings up the question of why they share an identical logo and website.... click on the link and tell me you've ever seen a racier logo for a toilet manufacturer... or a website for a toilet manufacturer which has a whole tab for it's SBK racing efforts. Their motto on their intro page "Althea Ceramics.. bring activate your emotion"... yea you corrupt clowns, I'll think about that next time I sit on my counterfit chinese toilet.

BLEAH... this level of corruption and abuse tarnishes all involved, and leaves a shitty taste in my mouth. Pun intended.

PS. one note, I called my parents in italy and asked them what brand bathroom fixtures we have.. yep, you guessed it, my dad proudly told me "Althea... did you know Alex they just won the SBK championship?"... yea dad, I did.
Ceramica Althea GoOn - Produzione Sanitari e Arredo Bagno
Ceramica Althea - Althea Racing

[CAlexio]

maybe i used the wrong title, should I have put this in road racing section mods? I can't believe no one has checked this out yet... this is huge news! ok, next time I'll make the thread title more like this... "SEX, RACING BIKES, AND NAKED BITCHES ON CHINESE TOILETS"

[grimah1w]

Great read! Sad as it is.

[RedSubmarine]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see how a crappy sponsor could reflect poorly on Ducati. Unless Ducati knew what was going on and was fine with this sort of scam, why should Ducati be held accountable? I hardly think it is Ducati's job to inspect every manufacturing factory of every sponsor. It is a shame that they couldn't have been sponsored by a more reputable toilet maker though...

[DuckMan]

Italians. Pffff. Just can't stand the fact that a Spaniard won.*

[CopperHeadMonster]

Originally Posted by RedSubmarine

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see how a crappy sponsor could reflect poorly on Ducati. Unless Ducati knew what was going on and was fine with this sort of scam, why should Ducati be held accountable? I hardly think it is Ducati's job to inspect every manufacturing factory of every sponsor. It is a shame that they couldn't have been sponsored by a more reputable toilet maker though...

I dont think CAlexio is saying that Ducati is accountable.. just that it casts a shadow on their win and association - while not brand erosion the association with a corrupt org does not help.

[CAlexio]

Originally Posted by RedSubmarine

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see how a crappy sponsor could reflect poorly on Ducati. Unless Ducati knew what was going on and was fine with this sort of scam, why should Ducati be held accountable? I hardly think it is Ducati's job to inspect every manufacturing factory of every sponsor. It is a shame that they couldn't have been sponsored by a more reputable toilet maker though...

it's like if you knew a soccer team was sponsored by drug money like Colombia's world cup team with Pablo Escobar, where you knew how many people were killed to get this team to be so wealthy. Here you have Ducati pulling out officially, while an outfit which cheats Italian manufacturing integrity, and tax payer resources in order to win.... Italians are furious about this. Imagine if you your favorite Nascar team which the whole country stands behind was actually financed by a shady business man who sold counterfeit products to you, and used gov't funds and your tax $ to win... wouldn't that make you feel cheated? ducati has very tight relationships with Althea... the fact that they didn't know or didn't check makes them look very bad.

Originally Posted by DuckMan

Italians. Pffff. Just can't stand the fact that a Spaniard won.*

yup

[metalhead]

Originally Posted by CAlexio

"SEX, RACING BIKES, AND NAKED BITCHES ON CHINESE TOILETS"

The Chinese make toilets too? Who'd have thunk it. Guess the whole world's going to hell in a handbasket.

I have no idea what that meant.


I'm confused. A dudes motorcycle championship is in question because of a Chinese toilet?



double you tee eff.

[CAlexio]

Originally Posted by metalhead

The Chinese make toilets too? Who'd have thunk it. Guess the whole world's going to hell in a handbasket.

I have no idea what that meant.


I'm confused. A dudes motorcycle championship is in question because of a Chinese toilet?



double you tee eff.

you're smarter than you look Ritchie... just not smart enough for this thread evidently

[TheX]

Pffft, could care less really.