Versilia: withdrawn from accounts to offer loans at high rates, then repaid the sums keeping the increase: this is who the former branch manager is
Melania Carnevali
February 16, 2021
—
VIAREGGIO. He withdrew money directly from the checking accounts of wealthy clients of the bank he managed and made loans with them at usurious rates. All through a round of post-dated checks that, in his plans, would have left no trace. But that was not the case and Amedeo Cortopassi, 56, from Massarosa (Lucca), former director of the Viareggio branch of Unicredit, was definitively sentenced to two years and three months of imprisonment for usury, in addition to the payment of 25 thousand euros for damages to the institute of credit to which “it has caused damage to image”, and obviously to all legal costs. The Supreme Court has now rejected his appeal confirming the sentence of the judges of the court of appeal.
The facts took place between 2005 and 2007. Cortopassi, who at the time headed the Viareggio branch, began to take possession of the money from account holders “falsifying the endorsements of the apparent beneficiaries”. Customers are unaware of everything. On the other hand, we rely on the bank as a trusted doctor.
And, over time, it manages to subtract, according to what was reconstructed by the prosecution, over two million euros. Money that then returns to current accounts, but with which Cortopassi in the meantime manages to pocket interest. And not even a few. The usury rate would have reached 150 percent, according to what is stated in the sentence of the Supreme Court.
The system, on the other hand, was very simple: he offered immediate liquidity with cashier’s checks and in exchange he received postdated checks with higher sums.
The delivery of postdated checks against which liquidity is received, according to the judges, are precisely «the modus operandi not only indicative “of a loan of money but also” typical of loans at usurious rates “. Furthermore, from the interceptions, it was revealed that the family victim of usury had an “urgent” need for liquidity to make investments. And it was the witness himself (the injured party) who confirmed the mechanism, the loan and also the loan shark rate.
All this did not create damage to the account holders (the sums all returned), but to the bank it did. To commit usury, Cortopassi, in fact, “exploited his position as employee, violating the duties of loyalty, fairness and good faith inherent in the employment relationship with the bank, his employer and in so doing to draw benefit”. His behavior therefore “has caused damage to the institution’s image, obscuring also towards the bank’s customers what should be a correct and transparent management of the relationship”.
And for this reason, already in the first instance, the former manager had been sentenced to pay compensation for the damage in favor of the civil party, that is Unicredit, with an “immediately executive provisional”. –
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
