Italian police issued five more
arrest warrants on Thursday as part of an investigation into
alleged fraud at mid-sized bank Carige.
The general director and deputy director of the bank's
trust centre were jailed along with a financial agent.
The police also issued arrest warrants to the bank's former
president, Giovanni Berneschi, and his daughter-in-law,
Francesca Amisano, although they had both already been arrested
previously in May.
Last month police seized five million euros from accounts
in the names of Berneschi, Amisano and the former chief
executive officer of the Carige Vita Nuova subsidiary, Fernando
Menconi.
Berneschi, who was Carige's president until last year, was
arrested in May along with Menconi and real-estate businessman
Ernesto Cavallini.
Police said they believe Berneschi, 77, was the ringleader
of a scam involving purchases made at inflated prices of stakes
in companies headed by accomplices, which allegedly made it
possible for 21 million euros to be taken out of Italy into
Switzerland between 2006 and 2009.
They suspect that part of this money was used to buy
properties in Switzerland in the name of senior figures at
Carige, a Genoa-based lender with about 1,000 branches and two
million clients.
Thursday's operation cames after investigations led
prosecutors to believe Carige manages used the trust centre to
avoid monitoring of the Bank of Italy over illegal operations.
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