Happiness, former directors under investigation for bankruptcy

Rimini, July 5, 2025 – An investigation in search of happiness. This is what ended in recent days, as reported in a notice of conclusion of investigations by Rimini prosecutor Luca Bertuzzi, against the Santarcangiolese entrepreneur Yuri Scarpellini – the creative patron of the 'Happiness' brand – and his ex-wife Manuela Mussoni, in view of the request for trial for a series of five charges, attributable to the alleged fraudulent bankruptcy connected to the failure of the company of which the former spouses were co-administrators.

A shop of the brand 'Happiness' founded by Scarpellini

The investigation clocks must be rewound to February 2020 , when the Rimini court declared 'Piccoli e Grandi Srl' bankrupt , the company managed by the two suspects that produced the famous Rimini fashion brand 'Happiness', launched by the 62-year-old entrepreneur and creative Yuri Scarpellini, defended by the lawyer Umberto De Gregorio.

A painful failure. A crash that made noise, for the company founded thirteen years earlier and which had then become iconic thanks to the 'Happiness' brand and its distinctive silkscreen and T-shirt printing business: a true must in fashion and worn by singers, actors and Italian showbiz personalities. A parabola of successes that had reached from the Riviera to California, with the opening of a branch in Los Angeles, but which was also retraced by the Guardia di Finanza of Rimini , which in several years of investigations crystallized a mosaic of operations that Scarpellini and his ex-wife Manuela Mussoni, defended by the trusted lawyer Astorre Mancini, allegedly put in place to dissipate the assets and ruin the company, causing a 'hole' of almost 10 million euros.

A financial catabasis for 'Piccoli e Grandi Srl' which, according to the accusations made by the prosecution, would have begun already in 2016. Between that year and 2018, in fact, according to the Guardia di Finanza, Scarpellini and Mussoni would have knowingly masked the economic, patrimonial and financial situation of 'Piccoli e Grandi', thus contributing to causing the state of bankruptcy of the company. In particular, in the three balance sheets that ended up under the lens, the suspects, faced with overall losses of up to 12 million euros in 2018, would have managed to reduce the liabilities by around 10 million, consequently indicating net assets adjusted upwards, again for a delta of around ten million euros. The alleged fictitious exposure of profits instead of losses and of a net assets instead of a flagellated one, would have in fact allowed the insolvent company to obtain financing anyway and increase debts by more than three million towards financiers and creditors.

Not only that. Because according to the accusations, Yuri Scarpellini and his ex-wife, always in their capacity as co-administrators of 'Piccoli e Grandi', before the bankruptcy would have also made payments to themselves - through bank transfers to other companies attributable to them - for a total of one and a half million euros, in addition to having squandered another 2,362,904.66 euros through withdrawals and further transfers of money with the most disparate reasons towards companies of Yuri Scarpellini's son and his wife. A corollary of accusations to which is added the fact of having aggravated the financial agony of the company by avoiding requesting its bankruptcy, despite being aware of the financial problems that had tormented it since 2016 and thus determining a liability in the assets of no less than 9 and a half million.

Just on Wednesday, the suspect Yuri Scarpellini was questioned by the Guardia di Finanza at his request after the end of the investigation and, soon, the preliminary hearing will be set.

"It should be noted that my client has already been the subject of two tax and fiscal proceedings for the epilogue of his company, for which he has always been fully acquitted - stressed the lawyer Umberto De Gregorio, reached by telephone by Carlino -. Now, in the courtroom we are certain to bring out new elements aimed at demonstrating the extraneousness of my client for certain financial management of the company, since Scarpellini was the creative and not administrative subject of 'Piccoli e Grandi'. A role, that of creative, also highlighted by the bankruptcy trustee whose report is in the investigation files". The defense of Manuela Mussoni, represented by the lawyer Astorre Mancini, instead highlights "the absolute extraneousness to the facts charged, taking into account that Mrs. Mussoni during the last five years before the bankruptcy financed the company she believed in, did not subtract value".