Italy’s Miteni PFAS Scandal Explained: Factory Closure, Court Convictions, and Equipment Transfer to India
07 January 2026, London: For decades, the chemical firm Miteni S.p.A., based in Trissino near Vicenza in Italy’s Veneto region, manufactured fluorinated chemical intermediates that belong to the group now commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” Over time, emissions and waste from the plant entered groundwater and drinking water sources across a wide area of northern Italy. The factory ceased operations in 2018, entered bankruptcy, and became the subject of one of Europe’s largest environmental criminal cases. Subsequent investigative reporting has documented how Miteni’s patents and industrial equipment were later acquired by an Indian company and transferred outside Europe.
What Miteni produced and how contamination was discovered
Miteni and its predecessor companies operated on the same Trissino site from the 1960s onward, producing fluorinated substances used in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and specialty chemical applications. Scientific studies conducted in the 2010s identified the plant as the primary source of PFAS contamination affecting groundwater and surface water in large parts of the Veneto region. Testing revealed PFAS in drinking water supplies serving multiple municipalities in the provinces of Vicenza, Padua, and Verona.
Italian prosecutors later established that pollution from the site had affected an estimated population of around 300,000 to 350,000 people. The contamination was described in court filings and media investigations as long-term, systematic, and avoidable, given what was known about PFAS persistence and toxicity.
Shutdown of the plant and bankruptcy proceedings
Under mounting regulatory pressure and criminal investigation, Miteni halted production and declared bankruptcy in 2018. The Trissino plant was shut down, and responsibility for environmental remediation passed to public authorities. The closure marked the end of PFAS manufacturing at the site but not the end of legal proceedings.
Italian prosecutors charged former managers and executives with environmental disaster, water poisoning, and negligence. The case drew national and international attention due to its scale and the growing global concern over PFAS pollution.
Convictions in the Vicenza PFAS trial
In June 2025, the Court of Assize in Vicenza delivered verdicts in the long-running PFAS criminal trial. Eleven former executives and managers linked to Miteni and its parent companies were convicted. Italian and international media reported that the court recognized the deliberate nature of the pollution and the failure to prevent known environmental damage.
The ruling included prison sentences and opened the way for substantial civil compensation claims from affected citizens, regional authorities, and water utilities. Environmental groups described the judgment as a landmark moment for corporate accountability in Europe.
Sale of patents and industrial equipment after bankruptcy
Following bankruptcy, Miteni’s assets, including patents, technical know-how, and production machinery, were put up for sale through court-supervised procedures. Investigative reporting published between 2024 and 2025 documented that these assets were acquired by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of Laxmi Organic Industries.
According to published investigations, the transaction occurred around 2019 and included both intellectual property and physical manufacturing equipment previously used at the Trissino plant. Journalists relied on bankruptcy records, court documents, and interviews to reconstruct the sale.
Transfer of machinery to India
Multiple investigative reports state that part of the machinery from the former Miteni plant was dismantled and shipped to India. Reporting has most frequently identified industrial locations in Maharashtra, including the Mahad and Lote industrial areas in Raigad and Ratnagiri districts, as destinations where the equipment was reinstalled.
Environmental groups and journalists raised concerns because PFAS manufacturing was not comprehensively regulated in India at the time. Reports published by European and Indian media linked the arrival of the machinery to fears that PFAS-related production could resume outside the European Union, where regulatory scrutiny had intensified.
Company statements and regulatory scrutiny in India
Laxmi Organic and Viva Lifesciences have been quoted in published reports responding to questions about the acquisition and use of Miteni’s former equipment. In some cases, the company stated that it complied with applicable Indian laws and that its operations differed from those previously conducted in Italy.
Indian media have also reported that state-level regulators, including the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, sought clarifications regarding the nature of operations at the facilities mentioned in investigations. As of published reporting, no final judicial determination in India has established wrongdoing related specifically to the transferred Miteni equipment.
What public sources confirm and what remains undocumented
Publicly available reporting confirms that Miteni caused widespread PFAS contamination in Italy, that the company shut down and entered bankruptcy in 2018, and that its assets were later sold to an Indian buyer. Investigative journalism has documented the transfer of machinery and patents from Italy to India and has identified likely destination sites in Maharashtra.
At the same time, no complete public inventory of all machinery sold, nor full sale contracts or shipping manifests, has been released in the public domain. Differences in reported locations reflect variations across sources rather than unpublished claims.
A case that continues to resonate
The Miteni case illustrates how industrial pollution can outlive the factory where it originated and how globalized chemical supply chains allow technology to move even as accountability remains local. While courts in Italy have delivered judgments on past harm, investigative reporting continues to track the afterlife of industrial assets once used to manufacture PFAS.
The story remains relevant as regulators worldwide debate how to manage legacy pollution, control hazardous technologies, and prevent the transfer of environmental risks from one region to another.
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