Consob has imposed a fine of 400.000 euros on the financier Alessandro Proto for hindering the supervisory activity of the entity.
Proto, known for a series of announcements of takeovers of listed companies and for having taken the field in the center-right primary elections (which were not held), last October plea bargained for three years and 10 months in prison and a fine of 200.000 euro in a criminal trial for market manipulation and obstruction of the supervisory authority.
Consob did not consider the information received upon request from Proto to be sufficient, in relation to a series of transactions announced by him with press releases in a period between January 2011 and October 2012, such as the acquisition of equity investments in various listed companies (RCS Mediagroup, Tod's, Mediaset, Fiat, Assicurazioni Generali, Mediobanca, Unicredit, Fondiaria Sai, Gruppo Editoriale l'Espresso and Banca Monte Paschi di Siena), the stipulation of a shareholders' agreement concerning RCS shares and the formulation of purchase proposals for some listed companies (in particular, the Rcs share package held by Assicurazioni Generali and Edizione; the Fondiaria Sai and Banca Monte Paschi di Siena share packages held, respectively, by Sator and Palladio and by the Monte Paschi di Siena Foundation).
“Mr. Proto has provided reticent and incomplete answers to these requests for information; furthermore, in some cases, he did not provide any response”, Consob explained, thus deeming that Proto failed to comply with his requests and “delayed the exercise of his supervisory functions”.
