Because the Fusillo case shakes the Popolare di Bari
All the news of the judicial investigation concerning the bankruptcy of some companies of the Fusillo di Noci business group which had close relations with the Banca Popolare di Bari
The Fusillo case returns to shake the Banca Popolare di Bari, which will soon have a new summit after the bailout of the state through Mediocredito centrale (Mcc), a bank controlled by Invitalia, the holding of the Ministry of Economy led by the CEO, Domenico Arcuri .
Here are all the latest judicial news.
“The progressive construction of what we can refer to as a gigantic 'house of debt' has been achieved”. This is what emerges from the documents on the crash of some companies of the Fusillo di Noci business group which today led to the arrest of six people.
The Guardia di Finanza of Bari has in fact arrested, with the granting of house arrest, for complicity in fraudulent bankruptcy Gianluca Jacobini, former co-general manager of the Banca Popolare di Bari, and has notified an interdiction order for his father Marco Jacobini, former president of the institute of Bari credit. The investigation, coordinated by the acting prosecutor Roberto Rossi with his deputy Lanfranco Marazia, concerns the bankruptcy of some companies of the Fusillo di Noci business group.
Gianluca Jacobini thus returns to detention after just over two months. On 8 July he and his father Marco had been revoked the previous precautionary measure ordered as part of the proceeding on the collapse of the Banca Popolare di Bari, in which they are accused of false accounting, false prospectus, false corporate communications and obstacle to vigilance. Up to now they had been subjected to the interdicting measure and also Marco to the prohibition of residence in Bari, his son Gianluca to the obligation of residence in Polignano a Mare.
A total of six people were arrested in the investigation into the crash of the Fimco and Maiora companies of the Fusillo di Noci Group. The entrepreneurs Giacomo Fusillo, director of some of the bankrupt companies, Vincenzo Elio Giacovelli, owner of the company Il Melograno Eventi, Girolamo Stabile, manager of funds, ended up under house arrest, at the disposal of the investigating judge of the Bari court Luigia Lambriola, besides Gianluca Jacobini. investment company with offices in Luxembourg and Gibraltar, Salvatore Leggiero, legal representative and sole director of Roma Trevi srl, and Nicola Loperfido, manager of the business management of the Banca Popolare di Bari, manager of the loans granted to the Fusillo group. The one-year ban was notified to Marco Jacobini and the entrepreneur of Noci Vito Fusillo, father of Giacomo, CEO of the companies Fimco and Maiora. The suspects are accused of various forms of fraudulent bankruptcy and self-laundering.
According to the documents of the investigators published by Ansa , this "debt house" would have been "built through a myriad of suspected extraordinary intercompany transactions, almost always artificially supported by convenient appraisals, drawn up by compliant professionals as well as fraudulent asset segregations functional to the continuous drainage of liquidity, under the weight of which, in reality for years now unsustainable, the foundations "of the Fimco and Maiora groups, both bankrupt in September 2019, collapsed," leaving something like 430 million euros of consolidated debts on the field, of which over 78 millions of pending debts against the tax authorities and public social security bodies ".
According to the investigations of the Guardia di Finanza and the technical advice arranged by the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office, the entrepreneurs, with the complicity of the top management of the Banca Popolare di Bari, would have dissipated the company assets with the sale of shares and real estate. In particular, Vito Fusillo and "the dominant banking partner" would have operated "according to an opaque strategy" by shifting "significant segments of assets" in favor of "third economies", such as investment funds with offices abroad, "of which directly or indirectly Banca Popolare di Bari and the Fusillo group ensured control ”, so the assets stolen from companies that have gone bankrupt“ remained in fact at the disposal of the supporters of the illicit initiative ”.
The former directors of Banca Popolare di Bari allegedly granted the failing companies of the Fusillo group overruns on current accounts and credit lines for tens of millions of euros. This is what emerges from the order that today led to the arrest of six people, including the former co-director of the Popolare di Bari Gianluca Jacobini, for the bankruptcy of some companies of the Noci entrepreneurial group.
For Marco and Gianluca Jacobini, the Fusillo group was "the main customer entrusted by the bank" and "by asserting their dominant influence on the investigating and decision-making bodies of the bank – the indictment reads -, they granted and repeatedly extended new credit lines, in the awareness of their uncollectability ". "The overall exposure of the Bari bank compared to the Fusillo group – reads the documents – has progressively reached the considerable figure of 340 million euros" and, "due to the longevity and pre-eminent economic importance of the position in question", relations with the Fusillo group were “handled directly and constantly by the top management of the banking institution, in the person of the suspects Marco and Gianluca Jacobini, for years the undisputed leaders in the management of Banca Popolare di Bari”.
There is the sale of a prestigious property in the center of Rome, Palazzo Trevi in via delle Muratte, a stone's throw from the fountain of the same name and owned by Fimco of the Fusillo di Noci group, among the operations that would have contributed to the collapse of the company . This is one of the details that emerge from the ordinance which today led to the arrest of six people, including some former leaders of the Banca Popolare di Bari, for complicity in fraudulent bankruptcy.
The asset would have been sold at a price of 40 million euros between 2016 and 2017 to the company "Roma Trevi" of the Florentine entrepreneur Salvatore Leggiero (among those arrested today), after Fimco had obtained from Banca Popolare di Bari credit lines for the same amount for the purchase and renovation of the property. The entrepreneur Vito Fusillo would have done so to "secure" the valuable assets of the companies that later went bankrupt, selling them to companies that can always be traced back to the Fusillo family. The bank, which would have “fully supported” the operation, would have instead had the objective of “reducing its exposure” towards Fimco.
The economic value of the assets of the companies of the Fusillo di Noci group "distracted" or "dissipated" between 2016 and 2019 was estimated at 93 million euros. There are four operations that, according to the investigations of the Bari Prosecutor's Office on the Fusillo Crack, which today led to the arrest of six people, would have contributed to the collapse of the companies
In addition to the sale of Palazzo Trevi in the center of Rome, there is the so-called "Kant plan", relating to the sale of 100% of the shares of two subsidiaries, Logistica Sud (bankrupt in November 2019) and Ambasciatori Immobiliare (bankruptcy petition pending ) in the foreign investment fund Kant Capital Fund Strategic Business based in Gibraltar attributable to Girolamo Stabile, against the receipt of units of the same fund with a nominal value of 20 million euros. Some properties of significant value would also have been disposed of, such as the former Hotel Ambasciatori in Bari and the Logistics Center in Rutigliano, sold to third-party companies for almost 27 million euros. Then there are the "Cni-Mcg" and "Soiget" operations, relating to the divestment of shareholdings and corporate assets, including prestigious hotels and tourist facilities such as "La Peschiera", "Il Melograno" and "Cala Ponte" in Polignano to love.
“The worst wickedness of the credit institution took place on the management of the financial position of the Fusillo group”. It is a passage of the order that today led to the arrest of six people, including the former co-director of the Popolare di Bari Gianluca Jacobini, for the bankruptcy of some companies of the Fusillo di Noci group. The documents speak of a "leading role" assumed by Popolare di Bari as "creator of the initiatives", making "the financial leverage to acquire the assets subject to sale by the companies of the Fusillo group available to the vehicle companies, with mortgage loans thanks to which the registration of a mortgage in one's favor was ensured ”.
"The common denominator of a series of extraordinary operations of illicit scope – reads the documents – is the constant presence of Banca Popolare di Bari in a role that is not that of the common banking partner who financially supports its own historical customer, in the context correct credit disbursement procedures, but highlights precise and serious responsibilities by way of concurrence in the offenses committed by the directors of the failed companies ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-il-caso-fusillo-scuote-la-popolare-di-bari/ on Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:30:52 +0000.