Finance police on Monday searched
the Banca Etruria premises, seizing paperwork connected to the
placement of its own subordinated bonds.
The lender is currently in receivership.
Arezzo prosecutors investigating possible wrongdoing in
connection with the bonds said bank management instructed its
investment advisors to sell the bonds to "retail clients who did
not have a suitable financial profile for such investments,
which would normally have been proposed to professional clients
possessing the necessary skills to...correctly evaluate the
risks they were taking".
Some clients were even encouraged to disinvest from their
fixed-income portfolios in order to purchase the Etruria bonds,
which were being touted as safe.
Several former managers including the father of Reform
Minister Maria Elena Boschi are being probed for suspected
mismanagement in the bank's failure, which left small investors
holding worthless paper - one of whom committed suicide.
Banca Etruria is one of four failed banks that were
rescued by the government last year. The others are Banca
Marche, Cassa di Risparmio di Chieti (CariChieti) and Cassa di
Risparmio di Ferrara (CariFe). The government has unveiled a
compensation package but some former bondholders are unhappy
with it.
The suspects could face charges of conspiracy to commit
aggravated fraud.
Civitavecchia prosecutors, meanwhile, are probing the
suicide of former Banca Etruria bondholder Luigi D'Angelo, who
killed himself after losing over 100,000 euros.
The probe is into suspected fraud and instigation to
suicide.
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