Finance police and agents from
market watchdog Consob on Wednesday were inspecting the offices
the MPS Foundation, the main shareholder of troubled Italian
bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS).
Sources told ANSA police suspect insider trading last
December, when MPS delayed a crucial three-billion-euro share
sale.
Agents are also said to be looking into 12% share sale the
foundation made last week.
On December 30, Consob launched what they termed
"coordinated monitoring" of Siena-based MPS, the world's oldest
functioning bank and Italy's third-largest by assets.
The bank has suffered a series of losses related to
derivatives and has seen earnings eroded by years of economic
recession.
Earlier this month finance police expanded their
investigation into what is now believed to be a 90-million-euro
fraud at MPS, including new searches in several cities including
Siena, Rome, and Milan.
The latest searches are part of a broader probe targeting
alleged members of the so-called "5% gang" - a name given to
ex-bank managers suspected of taking 5% payoffs on banking
operations under a previous management.
Investigators believe the fraud occurred between January
and October 2013.
Prosecutors say they hope to eventually bring charges of
aggravated criminal conspiracy aimed at defrauding the Sienese
bank.
The case involves funds transferred to offshore accounts,
trusts and companies, and investigators are reaching out as far
as San Marino, Switzerland, Great Britain and Singapore as they
search for suspicious international transactions.
The Siena prosecutor's office has placed 11 former MPS
managers and financial brokers under investigation in the case,
including Gianluca Baldassarri, former chief of finance for MPS.
They are also probing Baldassarri's former deputy,
Alessandro Toccafondi, the former head of the MPS London office
Matteo Pontone, and former MPS manager Antonio Pantalena.
Italy's third-largest bank was thrown into crisis in
January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative
and structured-finance deals produced losses of 720 million
euros.
Meanwhile, the investigating judge of the court of Siena
announced this month the file has been closed into the suicide
of David Rossi, the bank's communication manager who threw
himself from a window in March 2013.
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