Intesa Sanpaolo reportedly formally investigated by the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office for the violation of Law 231 of 2001 on the administrative responsibility of entities. The institute could be subject to compensation claims for the actions carried out by Vincenzo Coviello from February 2022 to April 2024, the period in which the 52-year-old from Bitonto (Bari) and former employee of the bank allegedly carried out 6.637 unauthorized accesses to bank account data of 3.572 customers spread across 679 branches throughout Italy. According to the prosecutors, Intesa Sanpaolo did not promptly report the illegal access to the investigators.
After the scandal, the lawyers of some of Coviello's clients asked the Prosecutor's Office for information to evaluate the constitution of a civil party or civil actions against the bank.
Intesa Sanpaolo defends itself and responds: "We are the injured party"
A spokesperson for Intesa Sanpaolo, in response to press reports, clarified that "the bank has not received any communication by the judicial authority” and underlines that Intesa “was able to proceed with the notification to the Privacy Authority and the complaint to the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office as an injured party within the timeframe made possible by an extensive and accurate process aimed at reconstructing what happened."
“Once the internal control structure highlighted the anomalies – explains the spokesperson – they underwent disciplinary procedure has been started and the analysis of the facts that required a complex and extensive reconstruction of what happened. In the meantime, the bank suspended the employee as a precaution and proceeded to initiate dialogue with the Privacy Authority, subsequently integrating the initial notification with the developments of the matter”.
“The complex analysis of the facts with the consequent completion of the disciplinary procedure – in compliance with the procedures to guarantee and protect the worker – led to the dismissal in light of the serious and repeated violations of rules, regulations and internal procedures committed by it. Only after all this was concluded, the bank was finally able to proceed to file a complaint as an injured party, based on the presentation of the facts as reconstructed to the judicial authority. The bank's behavior will be based as always on maximum cooperation with the authorities", concludes Intesa.
