Valsella was formed in 1969–1970 by Brescia-based entrepreneurs, Francesco Rena and Antonio De Cristofano, with ties to the Italian Ministry of Defence and the Redon Trust, a Schaan, Liechtenstein, based company of which one of the Valsella founders, Cristofano, was an attorney.
Meccano Tecnica was a company, based in Castenedolo, that produced furniture, chairs and plastic containers especially for televisions.
Valsella owned 50% of a Milan-Rome company, Valtec, which was responsible for sales, and 32.4% ownership of Motomar, a Milan-based manufacturer of marine motors.
Overall, Valsella, via the Redon Trust was controlled by a Swiss-based Italian, Paolo Jasson resident in Collina d'Oro, Switzerland, until the arrival of Fiat in 1984.
In 1977, Misar SpA, also Brescia based, was founded by technical staff of Valsella in conjunction with SEI, Società Esplosivi Industriali.
In 1995 the Misar sea and land mine product line was sold from Whitehead to SEI.
[7] In 1991 the Valsella's managers, consultants, and administrators – Antonio De Cristofano, Mario Fallani (director of Casalee Italia), Gabriel van deuren (manager of Cofitec), Cesare Somigliana, Calista Calisto, Paulo Jasson, Paolo Torsello, Vito Taddeo, and Peter Kurt Maier[8] – were charged with illegal trading with Iraq.
[9] The defendants plea-bargained at their 1991 trial; although they acknowledged having committed irregularities, the Supreme Court acquitted the managers of the serious crimes of illegal arms trade and violation of currency regulations.
In 1995, the land and sea mine production of Misar (which was already incorporated into Whitehead in 1990) was sold to Società esplosivi industriali SpA (SEI).