For the former President of Monte dei Paschi, Giuseppe Mussari, and for the former General Director Antonio Vigni an 11-year nightmare ends: the Supreme Court definitively acquitted them, as previously the Court of Appeal of Milan, because "there were no budget manipulations" with the controversial derivatives Santorini, Alexandra, Chianti Classico and Fresh, activated by Siena between 2008 and 2012 to finance the unfortunate acquisition of Antonveneta by MPS. The Supreme Court of Cassation deemed the appeal of the Milan Prosecutor's Office against the acquittal sentence of the Court of Appeal inadmissible because the latter "justified its decision point by point while the Court's reconstruction was promptly denied by the Court of merit".
Great joy for Mussari's lawyers, "who underwent 11 years of trials, all of which ended in acquittals": "The castle of accusations against Mussari that unraveled in various trials did not hold up". He obviously disappointed the civil parties.
This marks the end of a bitter page for Monte dei Paschi, which will probably also pave the way for the acquittal of former President Alessandro Bouquet and the former DG Fabrizio Viola, hit with the same original charges against Mussari, and another one opens: that of the privatization which will be one of the pillars of the challenging divestment programme Government and the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti. It is no coincidence that the MPS stock on the stock exchange was the best of the Ftse Mib yesterday.
