All acquitted because "the fact does not exist". This is the verdict of the third section of the Milan Court of Appeal against the 13 defendants for insider trading - including Antonio Fazio, former governor of Bank of Italy - at the end of the new second-level trial for the attempted takeover of Unipol by BNL in 2005 The judges also revoked the fines for the three companies involved (Unipol, Bper and Hopa), as well as the 15 million euro provision that the defendants should have paid to the Spanish bank BBVA.
On 30 October, the pg Felice Isnardi had requested the prescription for all the defendants and the sentence of Unipol to a fine of 720.000 euros for having violated the law on corporate liability. In the indictment, Isnardi had said that Fazio was responsible for having hindered the takeover of Bbbva in Bnl (which is now part of the Bnp Paribas group), but that he could not ask for his conviction because the crime was time-barred last December 19th.
The reasons for the sentence will be published by 31 January 2014. The other defendants for whom the Milan Court of Appeal has decided to acquit are the CEO of Unipol Carlo Cimbri, the property developers Danilo Coppola, Stefano Ricucci and Giuseppe Statuto, the PDL MEP Vito Bonsignore, the financier Emilio Gnutti, the banker Bruno Leoni, the publisher Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and the brothers Ettore and Tiberio Lonati.
On December 7, 2012, the Cassation canceled with postponement the acquittal sentence for Fazio and the others decided by the Milan Court of Appeal in May last year, instead confirming the conviction of Ivano Sacchetti and Giovanni Consorte, former vice president and president respectively of Unipol, for insider trading.
