All canceled. The former president of Mps, Giuseppe Mussari was acquitted in the trial on alleged irregularities in structured finance transactions (derivatives) carried out by Rocca Salimbeni between 2008 and 2012 to try to cover (according to the indictment) the losses due to the acquisition of Antonveneta. The Milan court of appeal overturned the sentence in first instance to 7 years and 6 months.
The process, as mentioned above, concerned some financial transactions carried out by the Sienese bank. The crimes alleged by the prosecution against all the accused were, for various reasons, market manipulation, false accounting, false prospectus and obstacle to the supervisory authority.
At the center of the investigation the derivatives Santorini and Alexandria, which Mps had underwritten with Deutsche Bank and Nomura and which, according to the prosecutor’s office, would have made it possible to hide the real financial situation of the bank, with particular reference to the losses after Antonveneta.
The acquittals of all the defendants (sixteen in all, including the banks), are for the most part on the merits. For some episodes, prior to August 2011, the statute of limitations took place. In fact, the second court of appeal, chaired by Angela Scalise, canceled the first instance sentence, also revoking the confiscations of 88 million for Nomura and 64 million for Deutsche Bank, charged together with the London Branch, and all ancillary penalties. .
All incredulous when reading the device. The substitute pg Gemma Gualdiwho had asked for sentences slightly lower than those decided by the Court due to some prescriptions, left the court without making any statement.
“This is the revelation of how the terrible power of prosecution is exercised in Italy, where, fortunately, there is still a judge, holed up in Berlin”, said Professor Tullio Padovani and the lawyers Francesco Marenghi and Fabio Pisillo, Mussari’s defenders. . Their joke refers to the famous phrase “a judge still exists in Berlin” contained in a work by Bertold Brecht, in which it speaks of a miller who fights tenaciously against the emperor to have an abuse repaired. “The lawyer Mussari – his lawyers concluded – is no longer what he was when this affair began, and no one will give him anything back. Perhaps we should all reflect on this”.
“Justice is finally done”, commented the lawyer Francesco Centonze, who with his colleague Carla Iavarone assists the former CEO Vigni. “The judges were brave,” added lawyer Francesco Isolabella.
“I have always been convinced of the innocence of my clients – said the lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone, lawyer of the Deutsche Bank managers – and I have always had faith in the work and balance of the judiciary. This sentence confirms that in our country there is it is justice and the present case is the full proof “.
All the defendants acquitted
In addition to Mussari and the former director general of Mps Antonio Vigni, the Court of Appeal also acquitted the other 11 people who were co-accused, for various reasons, of false prospectus, false corporate communications and obstacle to the supervisory authority. Among these are the other former managers of the Sienese bank: the former head of the finance area Gianluca Baldassarri, the former financial director Antonio Pirondini and Marco Di Santo, manager of Alm within the Treasury and Capital management area of the Sienese bank. And again the six executives of Deutsche Bank (Michele Faissola, Michele Foresti, Dario Schiraldi, Matteo Vaghi, Marco Veroni and Ivor Scott Dunbar) and the former manager of the Japanese institute Nomura Sadeq Sayeed, CEO of Nomura International at the time Plc London.
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