Bad surprise this morning in Rocca Salimbeni. In the headquarters of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, before the offices even opened, it clicked a blitz by the Guardia di Finanza.
The search was ordered by Prosecutor of Siena in the context of an investigation into alleged crimes of insider trading and obstruction of supervisory bodies. The investigation is related to facts of 2007, when Mps bought the Antonveneta bank from the Spanish of Banco Santander. There are at least two suspects, both members of Banca MPS. A few days ago Alessandro Profumo took office as president of the Institute as the successor of Giuseppe Mussari.
The registered offices of the Montepaschi Foundation, of the Municipality and Province of Siena, of numerous Italian and foreign financial institutions based in the country and of the private homes of MPS officials and executives in Siena, Rome, Florence, Milan, Padua and Mantua were also searched .
The crimes hypothesized by the investigators would have continued until 2012 and would refer to various operations: the procurement of the resources necessary for the acquisition of Antonveneta, the loans in favor of the Monte dei Paschi Foundation, communications made over time to the supervisory bodies and transactions on the security, to alter its exchange value.
The searches are carried out by the special currency police unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Rome, assisted by the provincial command of Siena. “As always, the Bank assures maximum collaboration – the Institute informs us – and reiterates its trust in the judiciary. The investigation concerns the capital increase of 2008 for the part of the so-called Fresh of one billion euro. The hypothesis is an obstacle to the supervisory authority".
At the end of the morning, the MPS stock on the Stock Exchange was suspended by excess downward and marks a theoretical drop of 5,10%, to 0,23 euro.
Last month, Montepaschi's shareholders' meeting returned to talking about the acquisition of Antonveneta. “The asset value of the bank was 2,3 billion – said the president of the outgoing board of statutory auditors, Tommaso Di Tanno – and it was bought for 9 billion. I won't go into the merits of whether the price of 9 billion was appropriate". According to Di Tanno, the preventive due diligence on the institution to be purchased "was not carried out", but in any case the data "turned out to be true".
