Margherita Agnelli sued her three children over her mother's estate, and Turin prosecutors charged her son John Elkann with tax fraud

Gianni Agnelli ran Fiat and died on 24 January 2003. Control of the family group sits in Dicembre, a holding company that controls Exor, which holds stakes in Stellantis and Ferrari. In 2004 Gianni's daughter Margherita signed an agreement under Swiss law: she received about €1.2 billion and gave up her father's shares and her future inheritance from her mother, Marella. In 2007 she sued for an accounting of her father's assets. A Turin judge rejected the suit in 2010, and Italy's Court of Cassation ruled it unfounded in 2015. Marella died in 2019, formally resident in Switzerland. In 2020 Margherita sued her children John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann, arguing the 2004 agreement was void and claiming half her mother's estate. Her lawyers say Marella lived mostly in Italy, which would bring the estate under Italian inheritance law. Her complaint led Turin prosecutors to open a tax investigation in 2024. They alleged the heirs left about €1 billion in assets and €248.5 million in income undeclared. In September 2025 prosecutors said the siblings had paid €183 million to the revenue agency, without admitting the allegations. John Elkann agreed to a year of community service. On 15 December 2025 a Turin judge ordered prosecutors to seek his indictment on two tax fraud counts for 2018 and 2019 and dropped proceedings against Lapo and Ginevra. In April 2026 prosecutors requested a trial^†. In 2026 John Elkann leads Exor, and Margherita's civil suit is pending in Turin^†.