Mauro Rostagno

Passions

Vocation

Lifestyle

Italian manager of Saman, a community for the rehab of drug addicts. He was assassinated by unknown persons on 9/26/1988 in Valderice; the case was unresolved. Rostagno began his political activities when he was in the university, where he was an exponent of The Continual Struggle, a humanitarian activist group. On a trip to India to pay homage to the guru Bhagwan, he met Cardella, who was an initiate calling himself Prem Francesco. When Bhagwan moved to Oregon, Cardella went back to Italy. He spent lots of time on his boat sailing around the Mediterranean and was suspected of drug trafficking. In 1981, Cardella convinced Rostagno and his wife to found Saman. After the assassination of Rostagno in 1988, he obtained millions in contributions and founded 23 Saman centers in all of Europe. Eight years after Rostagno's assassination, Chicca Rostagno and Francesco Cardella, the present owners of Saman, were accused of hiring a hitman to do the murder. After investigation, they were released, leaving the case still open. It was the summer of 1996 when the case exploded. Because Rostagno had objected to Cardell's skimming funds from Saman, he had hired a hit-man to eliminate Rostagna. Cardella and Chicca were arrested. She was extradited and returned to Italy where she was jailed in August 1996. and Cardella fled. Link to Wikipedia biography (Italian)