Bancopoli
Encyclopedia
Bancopoli was the name coined by the Italian press to identify the finance and banking scandals that played out for the Italian
public between July 2005 and January 2006. The Italian Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), in competing with Dutch ABN AMRO
for control of Banca Antoniana Popolare Veneta (known as Antonveneta
), was given an unfair advantage by Banca d'Italia
's (Italy's central bank) President Antonio Fazio
. Fazio was forced to resign and BPI Managing Director Gianpiero Fiorani
was arrested on a number of charges in connection with the attempted takeover having been accused of using illegal procedures. Giovanni Consorte
, head of the Italian insurance company Unipol
, was also forced to resign due to implications of connection with the Antonveneta scheme and another attempted takeover of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
(BNL). Ultimately, ABN AMRO gained control of Antonveneta and the French BNP Paribas
controlled BNL.
bank ABN Amro
asked the national Bank of Italy for authorization to increase its ownership of the Italian bank Antonveneta
from 12.6% to 20% which would make it the largest single shareholder. On February 14, 2005 the Italian bank BPI (then Banca Popolare di Lodi (BPL)) received permission from the Bank of Italy to raise its holdings in Antonveneta to 15%.
On March 30, 2005, ABN Amro launched a bid for Antonveneta. On April 29, BPL proposed a merger with Antonveneta.
launched an takeover bid for controlling interest in BNL.
This created competition between two Italian companies against two foreign banks for ownership of the Italian owned banks.
ordered judicial seizure of any Antonveneta bank shares owned by BPL (at this time named Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI)) following an investigation that began on May 2. This case was investigated by public prosecutors Eugenio Fusco and Giulia Perrotta.
Close personal ties between BPL Managing Director Gianpiero Fiorani
and Banca d'Italia Governor Antonio Fazio
ensured prompt authorization of BPL's requests, while those of ABN Amro were stalled. According to the Italian markets regulator Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSoB), BPL had been purchasing Antonveneta stocks since November 2004 through a secret shareholder agreement and as late as January 17, 2005 still only declaring a little over 2% ownership.
On February 14, 2005, BPL assumed control of Antonveneta with 52% in aggregate shares of the bank. BPL had direct control of 15% of the stock and the rest was controlled through other associated companies to include: Fingruppo, Gp Finanziaria, Unipol, and Magiste. Fiorani revealed under questioning in December 2005 that the operation was financed by amassing money through illegal bank charges and by taking it from accounts of deceased people.
were among the twenty three personnel identified. They were key shareholders of Fingruppo, Gp Finanziaria, and Hopa. The Italian Prime Minister also these companies in his portfolio, managed by Mediaset
and Fininvest
, already co-authors of the inflation of Telecom Italia
. Also identified was Roberto Colaninno of Olivetti
, Vice President of Monte dei Paschi di Siena
previously convicted for insider trading
. On June 8 the tribunal of Padua suspended the Antonveneta Board of Directors as a result of the investigations.
Meanwhile prosecutors in Rome decided to open a case on banking sector developments and Fiorani was added to the list of names being investigated as of July 12. It was immediately clear that this was a major scandal. Three days later on July 15, Francesco Frasca the head of the Banca d'Italia
's investigator's office working with prosecutors Perla Lori and Achille Toro, released the list of persons under investigation in Rome.
Adding to public indignation was the publication of transcripts of intercepted telephone calls between the central characters involved in the scandal. In particular, the call in which Fazio gave Fiorani Banca d'Italia's permission to conduct the transactions was considered astonishing as it displayed such familiarity between the two banks and gave the public a greater appreciation of the full extent of the scandal.
; the Lonatis; and Danilo Coppola. The seizure notice also mentioned several wiretaps which implicated Fazio and Fiorani. The prosecutors used this as proof that the inflation was illegally planned. On August 2 the judge for the preliminary investigation Clementina Forleo
validated the stock seizure and directed measures against Fiorani and Gianfranco Boni, the BPI financial director.
On September 16 Fiorani resigned from the Board of BPI, amid new allegations against his office. He was charged with stock manipulation, insider trading, and obstruction of the CONSoB investigation. Fiorani was further more charged with making false statements to a public office and publishing false evaluations and prospectus. The allegations were that Fiorani had personally enriched himself through financing his own bank.
resigned in protest against the government's failure to oust Fazio.
On September 29 the news filtered down that the head of Banca d'Italia had been investigated since early August by the prosecutor in Rome for possible abuse of his office in relation to the Antonveneta inquiry. Summoned by the magistrates, Fazio was to be questioned October 10.
On December 6 the entire Board of Directors, the executive committee, and auditors of BPI came under investigation for stock manipulation. This was a new threat of an inquiry and it rocked the economic world.
On December 7 Giovanni Consorte
, head of the insurance company Unipol, was added to the list of those being investigated for his participation in the buying of Antonveneta shares on behalf of Fiorani.
The same day Vito Bonsignore
came under investigation for stock manipulation, a Member of European Parliament from the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) party and an entrepreneur. He owned Gefip, a company that participated in the stock inflation orchestrated by Fiorani. Bonsignore was the only politician who was clearly implicated in the scandal.
On December 15 Giovanni Consorte
, Unipol's chairman and chief executive, came under investigation by the prosecutor of Rome for stock manipulation, market manipulation, and obstruction relating to an inquiry into the inflation of BNL. CONSoB asserted that a pact existed between Unipol and Deutsche Bank
.
Fiorani, questioned on December 17, made several admissions to accumulating 70 million euros at the expense of his clients.
The Governor of Banca d'Italia, by now implicated in the inquiry and under a great deal of pressure from Italian parliament, resigned his commission on December 19. His resignation was accepted by the high council of the central bank the next day.
On December 28 Consorte was forced to relinquish control of Unipol as the list of allegations lengthened. According to the magistrates, Unipol would have aided Fiorani in the illegal inflation of Antonveneta and potentially received benefits from the intricate web of relationships woven with the other so-called furbetti del quartierino (?) for acquiring BNL.
The same day, following the acquisition of 25.9% of capital previously controlled by BPI, the Dutch ABN Amro definitively gained control of Antonveneta with 55.8% of the capital. They prepared to launch a takeover bid by the end of the month with the same terms offered the previous July, terms that had been abandoned thanks to the opposition of BPI and its allies.
later sold the shares in its possession.
publicized part of the telephone wiretaps of calls between Consorte and the secretary of the Democratici di Sinistra (DS) party member Piero Fassino
and amplified the political scandal. Il Giornale is owned by Paolo Berlusconi
the brother of Silvio Berlusconi, then Prime Minister of Italy. The published wiretaps, going back to July 2005, turned out to be irrelevant to the judicial issues and were not even transcribed by the magistrate. However, their publication had a significant effect in politics and the media and was exploited by most of the right wing politicians in the campaign up to the April 9 elections.
On January 12, during an episode of Porta a Porta
hosted by Bruno Vespa
, Silvio Berlusconi revealed that he was aware of the facts regarding the implication of the DS in the issues surrounding Unipol. After repeated requests by the supporters of l'Unione (a centre-left political party) to make a immediate statement to the magistrates, the next day he presented himself to the prosecutor of Rome. He spent 30 minutes in conversation with the magistrates and Berlusconi clarified that he only told the magistrates that he was made aware by Tarak Ben Ammar
of an encounter between the heads of the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali and those of Unione, in which Generali was pressured to sell Unipol their own share of BNL, equivalent to 8.7%.
On January 18 the president of Generali, Antoine Bernheim, testified before the magistrate and categorically denied having been pressured to sale by members of the left party, only by Fazio. Ben Ammar confirmed having spoken of these meetings, but he also denied the allegation by Berlusconi, "Bernheim and me never told the president of the Council that political representatives of the left or right applied pressure."
On January 25 the Prosecutor of Rome requested the filing of the brief regarding Berlusconi's deposition, the relevant criminal facts did not correspond to the case and grounds for opening a libel case did not exist.
No information related to the source that allowed the journalist from il Giornale to access the wiretaps. After an investigation ordered by the Ministry of Justice, the diskette containing the original wiretaps was found still in its envelope sealed the previous August. During the parliamentary hearing of one section of the Italian secret service, members of DS called upon the service to abstain from any intervention that might influence the outcome of the electoral campaign.
It emerged during questioning that there had been cash transactions with the center-right politicians, including Roberto Calderoli
of the Lega Nord and Aldo Brancher
of Forza Italia
. The investigation is pending documentary confirmation of these statements.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
public between July 2005 and January 2006. The Italian Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), in competing with Dutch ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is a Dutch state-owned bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. It was re-established, in its current form, in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of ABN AMRO Group by a banking consortium consisting of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander and Fortis...
for control of Banca Antoniana Popolare Veneta (known as Antonveneta
Antonveneta
Antonveneta , was in 2008 the 9th largest banking group in Italy in terms of customer loans and the 8th largest in terms of total assets, with 1,000 branches, 10,800 employees and €50bn in assets....
), was given an unfair advantage by Banca d'Italia
Banca d'Italia
Banca d'Italia is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, Roma, via Nazionale...
's (Italy's central bank) President Antonio Fazio
Antonio Fazio
Antonio Fazio is an Italian banker, who was the Governor of Banca d'Italia from 1993 until his resignation amidst controversy at the end of 2005....
. Fazio was forced to resign and BPI Managing Director Gianpiero Fiorani
Gianpiero Fiorani
Gianpiero Fiorani , is an Italian banker and manager who was implicated in the Italian banking scandal of 2005 known as "Bancopoli".- Biography :...
was arrested on a number of charges in connection with the attempted takeover having been accused of using illegal procedures. Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte is an Italian manager. He graduated in chemical engineering at the University of Bologna in 1972 and headed Montedison from 1973 to 1975, then Lega delle Cooperative from 1976 to 1978. Since 1979 he worked in Unipol, of which he became President in 1996. He resigned on December...
, head of the Italian insurance company Unipol
Unipol
Unipol Gruppo Finanziario S.p.A. is an Italian financial services company operating principally in the insurance sector, in which it is the country's fourth-largest firm. Based in Bologna, the company was founded in 1962 as a cooperative provider of non-life insurance...
, was also forced to resign due to implications of connection with the Antonveneta scheme and another attempted takeover of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA is an Italian banking firm. Founded in 1913 as Istituto di Credito per la Cooperazione, it was nationalized in 1929. It was re-privatized and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1998, before being acquired by French banking group BNP Paribas in 2006...
(BNL). Ultimately, ABN AMRO gained control of Antonveneta and the French BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas S.A. is a global banking group, headquartered in Paris, with its second global headquarters in London. In October 2010 BNP Paribas was ranked by Bloomberg and Forbes as the largest bank and largest company in the world by assets with over $3.1 trillion. It was formed through the merger...
controlled BNL.
Antonveneta
During the summer of 2004, the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
bank ABN Amro
ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is a Dutch state-owned bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. It was re-established, in its current form, in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of ABN AMRO Group by a banking consortium consisting of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander and Fortis...
asked the national Bank of Italy for authorization to increase its ownership of the Italian bank Antonveneta
Antonveneta
Antonveneta , was in 2008 the 9th largest banking group in Italy in terms of customer loans and the 8th largest in terms of total assets, with 1,000 branches, 10,800 employees and €50bn in assets....
from 12.6% to 20% which would make it the largest single shareholder. On February 14, 2005 the Italian bank BPI (then Banca Popolare di Lodi (BPL)) received permission from the Bank of Italy to raise its holdings in Antonveneta to 15%.
On March 30, 2005, ABN Amro launched a bid for Antonveneta. On April 29, BPL proposed a merger with Antonveneta.
BNL
On March 29, 2005, the Spanish bank BBVA launched a bid to become the majority shareholder of BNL. They already controlled 15% of the shares. Then on July 19 the Italian insurance company UnipolUnipol
Unipol Gruppo Finanziario S.p.A. is an Italian financial services company operating principally in the insurance sector, in which it is the country's fourth-largest firm. Based in Bologna, the company was founded in 1962 as a cooperative provider of non-life insurance...
launched an takeover bid for controlling interest in BNL.
This created competition between two Italian companies against two foreign banks for ownership of the Italian owned banks.
Scandal
The scandal became public on July 25, 2005 when the public prosecutor's office in MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
ordered judicial seizure of any Antonveneta bank shares owned by BPL (at this time named Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI)) following an investigation that began on May 2. This case was investigated by public prosecutors Eugenio Fusco and Giulia Perrotta.
Close personal ties between BPL Managing Director Gianpiero Fiorani
Gianpiero Fiorani
Gianpiero Fiorani , is an Italian banker and manager who was implicated in the Italian banking scandal of 2005 known as "Bancopoli".- Biography :...
and Banca d'Italia Governor Antonio Fazio
Antonio Fazio
Antonio Fazio is an Italian banker, who was the Governor of Banca d'Italia from 1993 until his resignation amidst controversy at the end of 2005....
ensured prompt authorization of BPL's requests, while those of ABN Amro were stalled. According to the Italian markets regulator Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSoB), BPL had been purchasing Antonveneta stocks since November 2004 through a secret shareholder agreement and as late as January 17, 2005 still only declaring a little over 2% ownership.
On February 14, 2005, BPL assumed control of Antonveneta with 52% in aggregate shares of the bank. BPL had direct control of 15% of the stock and the rest was controlled through other associated companies to include: Fingruppo, Gp Finanziaria, Unipol, and Magiste. Fiorani revealed under questioning in December 2005 that the operation was financed by amassing money through illegal bank charges and by taking it from accounts of deceased people.
Preliminary investigation
On May 2, 2005 the prosecutor in Milan began putting together a case against unidentified persons who had infiltrated Antonveneta. The allegations were of stock manipulation,specifically attempting to influence the price of Antonveneta stock through an active misinformation campaign. Fifteen days later the prosecutor released the initial group of names being investigated. Fiorani and Emilio GnuttiEmilio Gnutti
Emilio Gnutti is an Italian financier and founder of the Hopa SpA holding company. He was involved in many important takeovers, most notably the one of Telecom Italia made in 1999 with Roberto Colaninno, and the subsequent sale of the company to Marco Tronchetti Provera...
were among the twenty three personnel identified. They were key shareholders of Fingruppo, Gp Finanziaria, and Hopa. The Italian Prime Minister also these companies in his portfolio, managed by Mediaset
Mediaset
Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country...
and Fininvest
Fininvest
Fininvest is a financial holding company controlled by Silvio Berlusconi's family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.-Structure:...
, already co-authors of the inflation of Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...
. Also identified was Roberto Colaninno of Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
, Vice President of Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. is the oldest surviving bank in the world. Founded in 1472 by the Magistrate of the city state of Siena, Italy, as a mount of piety, it has been operating ever since. Today it consists of approximately 3,000 branches, 33,000 employees and 4.5 million...
previously convicted for insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
. On June 8 the tribunal of Padua suspended the Antonveneta Board of Directors as a result of the investigations.
Meanwhile prosecutors in Rome decided to open a case on banking sector developments and Fiorani was added to the list of names being investigated as of July 12. It was immediately clear that this was a major scandal. Three days later on July 15, Francesco Frasca the head of the Banca d'Italia
Banca d'Italia
Banca d'Italia is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, Roma, via Nazionale...
's investigator's office working with prosecutors Perla Lori and Achille Toro, released the list of persons under investigation in Rome.
Adding to public indignation was the publication of transcripts of intercepted telephone calls between the central characters involved in the scandal. In particular, the call in which Fazio gave Fiorani Banca d'Italia's permission to conduct the transactions was considered astonishing as it displayed such familiarity between the two banks and gave the public a greater appreciation of the full extent of the scandal.
The scandal explodes
On July 25, the lead investigators for the Milan inquiry, Fusco and Perrotti, had all Antonveneta stock held by BPI and its allies seized. Among those identified were Emilio Gnutti; Stefano Ricucci, owner of Magiste previously implicated in the murky inflation of RCSRCS
RCS may refer to:Clubs and societies*Racing Club de Strasbourg*Radcliffe Choral Society*Royal College of Science*Royal College of Surgeons*Royal Commonwealth SocietyTechnology*Radar cross-section*Radio Computing Services*Reaction control system...
; the Lonatis; and Danilo Coppola. The seizure notice also mentioned several wiretaps which implicated Fazio and Fiorani. The prosecutors used this as proof that the inflation was illegally planned. On August 2 the judge for the preliminary investigation Clementina Forleo
Clementina Forleo
Maria Clementina Forleo is an Italian preliminary judge at the Court of Milan....
validated the stock seizure and directed measures against Fiorani and Gianfranco Boni, the BPI financial director.
On September 16 Fiorani resigned from the Board of BPI, amid new allegations against his office. He was charged with stock manipulation, insider trading, and obstruction of the CONSoB investigation. Fiorani was further more charged with making false statements to a public office and publishing false evaluations and prospectus. The allegations were that Fiorani had personally enriched himself through financing his own bank.
The inquiry widens
Meanwhile the scandal was discussed in political circles, with Fazio singled out as the principal culprit and there were repeated calls for his resignation. After some deliberation, on September 22 finance minister Domenico SiniscalcoDomenico Siniscalco
Domenico Siniscalco is an Italian economist and former Minister of Finance.He served Italian government from June 2001 to July 2004 as Director General of Treasury...
resigned in protest against the government's failure to oust Fazio.
On September 29 the news filtered down that the head of Banca d'Italia had been investigated since early August by the prosecutor in Rome for possible abuse of his office in relation to the Antonveneta inquiry. Summoned by the magistrates, Fazio was to be questioned October 10.
On December 6 the entire Board of Directors, the executive committee, and auditors of BPI came under investigation for stock manipulation. This was a new threat of an inquiry and it rocked the economic world.
On December 7 Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte is an Italian manager. He graduated in chemical engineering at the University of Bologna in 1972 and headed Montedison from 1973 to 1975, then Lega delle Cooperative from 1976 to 1978. Since 1979 he worked in Unipol, of which he became President in 1996. He resigned on December...
, head of the insurance company Unipol, was added to the list of those being investigated for his participation in the buying of Antonveneta shares on behalf of Fiorani.
Gianpiero Fiorani arrested, Fazio and Consorte resign
On December 13 the major charge of association with criminal intent was added against Fiorani. The inquiry was now working on three primary accusations: association with criminal intent, stock manipulation, and embezzlement. The embezzlement stemmed from Fiorani taking money from current accounts of the clients in his own bank. Judge Forleo, at the request of the prosecutor, issued an order to take Fiorani into custody.The same day Vito Bonsignore
Vito Bonsignore
Vito Bonsignore is an Italian politician andMember of the European Parliamentfor North-Westwith the Cristiani Democratici Uniti, part of the European People's Party and...
came under investigation for stock manipulation, a Member of European Parliament from the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) party and an entrepreneur. He owned Gefip, a company that participated in the stock inflation orchestrated by Fiorani. Bonsignore was the only politician who was clearly implicated in the scandal.
On December 15 Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte
Giovanni Consorte is an Italian manager. He graduated in chemical engineering at the University of Bologna in 1972 and headed Montedison from 1973 to 1975, then Lega delle Cooperative from 1976 to 1978. Since 1979 he worked in Unipol, of which he became President in 1996. He resigned on December...
, Unipol's chairman and chief executive, came under investigation by the prosecutor of Rome for stock manipulation, market manipulation, and obstruction relating to an inquiry into the inflation of BNL. CONSoB asserted that a pact existed between Unipol and Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
.
Fiorani, questioned on December 17, made several admissions to accumulating 70 million euros at the expense of his clients.
The Governor of Banca d'Italia, by now implicated in the inquiry and under a great deal of pressure from Italian parliament, resigned his commission on December 19. His resignation was accepted by the high council of the central bank the next day.
On December 28 Consorte was forced to relinquish control of Unipol as the list of allegations lengthened. According to the magistrates, Unipol would have aided Fiorani in the illegal inflation of Antonveneta and potentially received benefits from the intricate web of relationships woven with the other so-called furbetti del quartierino (?) for acquiring BNL.
The resignation of Judge Achille Toro and the victory of ABN Amro bank
On Tuesday January 3, 2006, the prosecutor of Perugia added the name of Achille Toro, special prosecutor of Rome, to the list of people being investigated based on the accusation that he revealed official secrets. Notwithstanding his receiving a declaration of good faith from his office, Toro resigned. Meanwhile declaring his innocence, from any allegations of involvement with the takeovers of BNL and Antonveneta and related stock activities. The official secret that Toro was thought to have revealed would have been related to those individuals under an ongoing investigation.The same day, following the acquisition of 25.9% of capital previously controlled by BPI, the Dutch ABN Amro definitively gained control of Antonveneta with 55.8% of the capital. They prepared to launch a takeover bid by the end of the month with the same terms offered the previous July, terms that had been abandoned thanks to the opposition of BPI and its allies.
The victory by BNP Paribas
On January 10, 2006, Banca d'Italia blocked the takeover bid of Unipol on BNL. On February 3, 2006, BNP Paribas acquired the 48% control of BNL that had belonged to Unipol and its associates. They launched a takeover bid of all of the stock holdings. The Banco de BilbaoBanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. is a multinational Spanish banking group. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria, both of which in turn had previously amalgamated three important banks in Spain, namely Banco de Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, Banco Exterior de...
later sold the shares in its possession.
The publishing by Berlusconi's newspaper "Il Giornale" and his testifying
On January 2, Il GiornaleIl Giornale
il Giornale is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy.-History:The newspaper was planned in 1972 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleague Enzo Bettiza, after some disagreements with the new pro-left editorial line adopted by the newspaper Corriere della Sera,...
publicized part of the telephone wiretaps of calls between Consorte and the secretary of the Democratici di Sinistra (DS) party member Piero Fassino
Piero Fassino
Pietro Franco "Piero" Fassino is an Italian politician with the Democratic Party, the current Mayor of Turin and a former national secretary of the Democrats of the Left party.-Biography:...
and amplified the political scandal. Il Giornale is owned by Paolo Berlusconi
Paolo Berlusconi
Paolo Berlusconi is the younger brother of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He is editor of the newspaper Il Giornale and the head of the investment group Paolo Berlusconi Finanzaria...
the brother of Silvio Berlusconi, then Prime Minister of Italy. The published wiretaps, going back to July 2005, turned out to be irrelevant to the judicial issues and were not even transcribed by the magistrate. However, their publication had a significant effect in politics and the media and was exploited by most of the right wing politicians in the campaign up to the April 9 elections.
On January 12, during an episode of Porta a Porta
Porta a Porta
Porta a Porta is an Italian late night television talk show hosted by the Italian journalist Bruno Vespa and is broadcast on Rai Uno since 1996 and is re-broadcast on Raisat Extra....
hosted by Bruno Vespa
Bruno Vespa
Bruno Vespa is an Italian television and newspaper journalist.A former director of Italian state-owned TV channel Rai Uno's news program TG1, he is the founding host of the program Porta a Porta , which has been broadcast without interruption on RAI channels since 1996.Vespa was born in L'Aquila,...
, Silvio Berlusconi revealed that he was aware of the facts regarding the implication of the DS in the issues surrounding Unipol. After repeated requests by the supporters of l'Unione (a centre-left political party) to make a immediate statement to the magistrates, the next day he presented himself to the prosecutor of Rome. He spent 30 minutes in conversation with the magistrates and Berlusconi clarified that he only told the magistrates that he was made aware by Tarak Ben Ammar
Tarak Ben Ammar
Tarak Ben Ammar is an international movie producer and distributor, He is famous for his interest in artistic movies, especially when they are related to Mediterranean culture or require North African locations...
of an encounter between the heads of the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali and those of Unione, in which Generali was pressured to sell Unipol their own share of BNL, equivalent to 8.7%.
On January 18 the president of Generali, Antoine Bernheim, testified before the magistrate and categorically denied having been pressured to sale by members of the left party, only by Fazio. Ben Ammar confirmed having spoken of these meetings, but he also denied the allegation by Berlusconi, "Bernheim and me never told the president of the Council that political representatives of the left or right applied pressure."
On January 25 the Prosecutor of Rome requested the filing of the brief regarding Berlusconi's deposition, the relevant criminal facts did not correspond to the case and grounds for opening a libel case did not exist.
No information related to the source that allowed the journalist from il Giornale to access the wiretaps. After an investigation ordered by the Ministry of Justice, the diskette containing the original wiretaps was found still in its envelope sealed the previous August. During the parliamentary hearing of one section of the Italian secret service, members of DS called upon the service to abstain from any intervention that might influence the outcome of the electoral campaign.
Gianpiero Fiorani questioned by PM judge
Gianpiero Fiorani, former president of the BPI, admitted to the public prosecutor under questioning that he made loans to certain center-right politicians under favorable conditions in order to rescue Antonio Fazio, director of Banca d'Italia. Among the measures used to gain this outcome was the rescue of Credieuronord, an allied bank on the brink of bankruptcy.It emerged during questioning that there had been cash transactions with the center-right politicians, including Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of Italy. He is currently a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet....
of the Lega Nord and Aldo Brancher
Aldo Brancher
Aldo Brancher is an Italian politician. He served as a Minister without portfolio in the Government of Silvio Berlusconi for 17 days in June/July 2010, but was forced to resign due to a pending court case.-Early career:...
of Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
. The investigation is pending documentary confirmation of these statements.
See also
- TangentopoliTangentopoliTangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
and the connected enquiry "Mani puliteMani puliteMani pulite was a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Some politicians and industry leaders committed suicide after their crimes were...
" - Inciucio
- Italian political scandalsItalian political scandalsThis is a list of major political scandals in Italy:* Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's corruption charges** Tax evasion** bribing members of the judiciary** "Immunity legislation"** Media manipulation for political propaganda...