Prosecutors in the northern
Italian city of Treviso said Thursday they were looking into
allegations of insider trading in connection with the Veneto
Banca.
Earlier this week, prosecutors began an investigation into
allegations of obstruction at the unlisted cooperative lender.
Vincenzo Consoli, former Veneto Banca chief executive and
now director general, and former chairman Flavio Trinca were
named as being among the suspects in that investigation.
Tax police searched the cooperative bank's headquarters in
Montebelluna in Italy's northern Veneto region and the homes of
other managers and shareholders as part of that probe.
Investigators said in total 16 shareholders were searched
on suspicion of receiving allegedly large sums of money over a
period of time.
Veneto Banca is one of the 10 cooperative, or 'popolari'
banks that will be affected by a government decree that will
dramatically change their ownership structures.
It was also one of the Italian banks that failed stress
tests conducted late last year by the European Central Bank
(ECB).
Meanwhile, Rome prosecutors announced they were
investigating Veneto Banca for allegedly granting loans without
proper safeguards leading to losses of more than 192 million
euros.
The inquiry came after concerns were raised by the Bank of
Italy, investigators said.
Last week, Veneto Banca announced losses for 2014 of 650
million euros after balance-sheet cleansing, part of which
resulted from the ECB's asset quality review.
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