Nine years in prison for Sergio Cragnotti, four for Cesare Geronzi, Gianpiero Fiorani acquitted. This is the sentence issued yesterday evening by the judges of the first criminal section of the Rome court at the conclusion of the trial on the Cirio crash. These are lower penalties than the requests made by prosecutors for a case that between 2002 and 2003 caused bonds to default for 1,215 billion euros and the house of cards of the galaxy led by Cragnotti and company collapsed. "I'm staying calm, it will be clarified on appeal," Geronzi commented on his part. «One is never satisfied in the face of a sentence, which always generates suffering – underlined the lawyer Nicola Madia, defender of the extraordinary administration of Cirio -. I am consoled only by knowing that a nation of savers, who have seen their savings go up in smoke, can receive part of what they lost back».
Unicredit and the convicted defendants, in fact, will have to pay compensation of 200 million euros. As for the lawyer Paola Severino, who defended Gerionzi, she underlined: «I cannot hide the disappointment for my client and for the banking system as a whole, because this sentence undermines business risk, which also assumes criminal. I do not deny that there is also a positive aspect represented by the reduction of the sentence compared to what was requested by the prosecutors". Codacons lawyer Luigi Ciratella defended about a thousand of the more than 35 savers involved in the crash. « 5 per cent of the nominal value of the shares or bonds that had been purchased was recognized as compensation. And that they ended up in smoke ».
