Mps investigation: from Antonveneta to the feasts, the seven years that made Siena tremble

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Thus ends, with the sentence of the Court of Milan, the maxi investigation on the Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The former president was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison Giuseppe Mussari and at 6 years and 3 months of imprisonment the former dg Antonio Vigni, to which are added for both 2 years of interdiction from public offices. The offenses, in various ways, are market manipulation, false accounting, false prospectus and obstacle to supervision.

Former bank manager also sentenced Daniele Pirondini at 5 years and 3 months and the manager of the financial area Gianluca Baldassarri at 4 years and 8 months. The managers of Deutsche Bank and Nomura were also found guilty. A total of 13 sentences were sentenced. Furthermore, Nomura and Deutsche Bank were sentenced to pay 3.45 and 3 million respectively. Instead, the prescription for a financial transaction is launched, the Fresh 2008 (as regards the obstacle to supervision)

The other processes
The sentence comes after an acquittal on appeal concerning the obstacle to supervision (on mandate agreement of the Alexandria derivative) and after a second acquittal to the so-called "5% gang", the only accused of embezzlement, led by the prosecutor of Siena by the same Baldassari and also made up of external managers. For the defense their earnings, mostly protected in tax havens, were proceeds of lawful activities and in fact the judge confirmed this thesis, despite the great activity of the investigators in the international rogatory (up to the island of Vanuatu).

The investigation
The investigations began in Siena in 2012, with the support of the Gdf Currency Unit. We began to talk about maxi bribes to the Democratic Party, IOR black funds and secret current accounts. But the investigation focused more precisely on financial issues, especially on the manner in which a capital increase had been made for the acquisition of Banca Antonveneta from Santander, which took place in 2008 for 9 billion, and on the ways in which subsequent budgets they had been embellished just to prevent it being understood that the purchase had not been so profitable.
The Alexandria and Santorini derivatives did indeed "trigger" the payment of the coupon to the shareholders, but then increased the debit account, calculating the mark to market of that period (around 1.2 billion). The discourse of the Chianti Classico derivative is similar, but linked to a real estate securitization.

To really increase the costs of the Antonveneta affair, however, had been the bad debts in the belly of the Paduan bank, in difficulty due to the financial crisis of that period. The debts that Mps then found due to Antonveneta rose to 17 billion, between inherited purchases and liabilities. The accusation addressed to the leaders was, in this regard, of not having realized a due diligence in his time which would have shown before the purchase the real situation of Antonveneta. Hence the narrations of that mythical night in which Mussari decided to close the deal in a few hours by relaunching the offer of Bnp Paribas, which had put 8 billion on the plate.