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Bank of Italy, diamonds, Bertini and lackeys

2 years ago babelfish

Bank of Italy, diamonds, Bertini and lackeys

All the latest news on the case of the Bank of Italy official, Carlo Bertini, suspended from service and from pay for 12 months

On December 20 Falbi, as the union that supported the Bank of Italy function, Carlo Bertini, in the Discipline Commission, was notified of the provision adopted by the Superior Council of the central institute governed by Ignazio Visco in the session of last December 17.

The sanction imposed on Bertini is that of suspension from service and from salary, for a duration of twelve months.

“We continue to believe in the dialectical and, if necessary, counter-position of the Syndicate and we are also convinced that the Bank and especially the category do not need a host of lackeys”, wrote Falbi in her statement.

"In the end, Bertini alone pays for the affair in the Bank of Italy", commented Il Fatto Quotidiano .

But the story of the sale of diamonds by the banks and how the Bank of Italy has supervised will soon have an echo also in Parliament.

As told by Startmag – the words of exponents of the 5 Star Movement, the Lega and the Brothers of Italy came to ask for guidance from the Central Institute governed by Ignazio Visco, and to protect Bertini.

The Commission of Inquiry on Banks, chaired by Carla Ruocco, should hear directly the governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, next January 20, after last week's program of Report, broadcast by Rai3, revealed, Ruocco explains , "Disturbing profiles relating to the affair of the sale of diamonds to their customers by the major credit institutions operating in the national territory". The president intends to propose “an in-depth analysis of an issue which, if confirmed, would cast heavy shadows on the relationship of trust that must exist between banks and customers. Savers, entering the bank, must feel safe ”, explains Ruocco.

For its part, Bankitalia, in its communication following the transmission, explained “that it had exercised specific actions of moral suasion against the individual banks involved. On the basis of the supervisory information request, the intermediaries announced the initiation of reimbursement initiatives with regard to customers ".

THE BANK OF ITALY VERSION ON THE BERTINI CASE

At the end of October, in the meantime, the long list of candidates was more than halved and to be civil parties in the proceedings for the alleged maxi scam on the sale of diamonds at inflated prices that sees 105 people and 5 companies accused, including Banco Bpm, Unicredit, Mps and Banca Aletti. The GUP of Milan, Manuela Scudieri, has excluded more than half of the approximately 600 offended parties identified by the Public Prosecutor's Office, in addition to other savers and consumer associations, who have asked to enter the process, recalled Mf-Milano Finanza .

The story of investment diamonds sold over the counter of some banks at inflated prices started in 2012 in the reports of the Milan prosecutor's office, ended in 2021 (in 2017 the Antitrust intervened with a fine) and led to the request for postponement in the opinion of 105 people and five companies, of which four banks. Two intermediaries involved: International Diamond Business spa (in bankruptcy) and Diamond Private Investment spa (in liquidation). The investigation was conducted by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, under the direction of the public prosecutor, Grazia Colacicco, who operated with the support of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.

The crimes hypothesized, for various reasons, are fraud, self-laundering, money laundering, corruption between individuals and, in one case, an obstacle to the supervisory authority. Customers who had invested in precious stones found diamonds which on the market they later discovered to be worth on average 30%, with peaks of 20%, of what they had paid. This was possible because in 2016 many contracts were signed with commissions up to 24% in favor of the institutes, which caused the price of the stones to swell.

The legal persons for which the trial was requested are Banco Bpm, which together with one of its former managers (Maurizio Faroni), will also have to answer for an obstacle to the supervisory authority (the institute was born in 2017, from the merger of Banco Popolare and Bpm, inheriting the diamond dossier), its subsidiary Banca Aletti, Unicredit, Banca Mps and Idb. Two other companies under investigation, Intesa Sanpaolo and Dpi, instead requested a plea bargain, already obtaining the favorable opinion of the prosecutor. The proceeding, which had led to the preventive seizure for 747 million euros, has shrunk over time to about 370 million, a third of which consisted of stones sealed in blisters with their own guarantee certificate.

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EXTRACT FROM THE FALBI PRESS RELEASE:

Above all, we believe that in the circumstance a dangerous precedent was affirmed for all the Bank's colleagues, who, from this story, draw an unequivocal lesson: in the Bank it is appropriate to "tie the donkey where the owner wants", because every gesture of autonomy of judgment, which should conflict with the will of superiors, can be a harbinger of serious consequences.

In essence, the principle of independence has been canceled, which is a fundamental prerogative of the public official and above all of those who act within a regulatory and control institution.

We believe that the reputational risks of the Bank do not derive from the behavior of Carlo Bertini, but from the management of the entire affair carried out by the Bank and its highest representatives.

In this year we have tried to stay close and to best support the Bertini colleague and we will continue to do so for any need he may have, because we believe that the first duty of the Union is to protect any Worker who finds himself in difficulty with his employer. work.

In these cases the trade union can have no doubt or hesitation to take sides: which side to stand is an ethical duty!

Compliance with this principle is a guarantee due for all Workers, who must know that they can count on the Syndicate in the event that they need protection.

In this regard, we can only express the deepest bewilderment at what occurred during the aforementioned meeting with the General Manager, where numerous other trade union organizations showed no hesitation in taking sides… with the Bank!

We continue to believe in the dialectical and, if necessary, opposing role of the Syndicate and we are also convinced that the Bank and especially the category do not need a host of lackeys.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/bankitalia-bertini-e-i-lacche/ on Thu, 23 Dec 2021 15:03:41 +0000.