They were admitted 3 thousand savers as a civil party in the process for compensation for damages suffered as a result of the default of the Bari institute. This was decided by the judges of the Criminal Court of Bari during the hearing on Tuesday 13 July 2021, which was held in a pavilion of the Fiera del Levante. With a "long and motivated ordinance" they admitted the establishment of the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Bari, but also the Codacons associations, the National Consumer Union and Federconsumatori. Excluding only the 80 shareholders who had accepted the settlement agreement proposed by BPB.
After numerous hearings postponed, due to the absence of an adequate venue where safety measures could be taken in compliance with the Covid regulations, the trial finally gets underway.
At trial there are the former leaders of the Popolare di Bari, Marco and Gianluca Jacobini, father and son, respectively former president and former general manager of the credit institution, arrested last January and charged with various crimes such as false company communications, false accounting, false statement and obstruction of the supervision of Bank of Italy and Consob, both excluded as civilly liable by the judges as the two entities "are required to perform supervisory and intervention tasks in credit institutions" but are not "burdened by any legal form of civil liability".
In defense of consumers' interests, thelawyer Corrado Canafoglia, national manager of the legal office of the National Consumer Union, and who in recent years has been looking after the interests of thousands of savers in the various Italian criminal trials relating to bank and corporate cracks, such as the "Banca Marche" case. Canafoglia is assisted by the lawyers Antonio Calvani from Molfetta, Ennio Cerio from Campobasso and Valentina Greco from Rome.
"We are satisfied with the result obtained which will allow savers to be able to assert their just claims and compensation for zeroed savings - he said Antonio Calvani, present at the hearing -. The college has identified Banca Popolare di Bari as civilly liable, therefore we hope that the Bari institution will propose to its shareholders a serious settlement agreement that effectively restores savers".
