Consob has closed the proceeding against Il Sole 24 Ore over the affair of inflated sales figures, but has also sanctioned five former executives of the group. The total amount of the fines exceeds one million euros and is divided as follows:
- 280 thousand euros to Roberto Napoletano, former director of Il Sole 24 Ore;
- 280 thousand euros to Donatella Treu, former CEO of the 24 Ore Group;
- 180 thousand euros to Anna Matteo, former Head of Marketing & Product Development;
- 160 thousand euros to Massimo Arioli, former financial director of Sole 24 Ore;
- 150 thousand euros to Alberto Biella, former director of the sales area.
According to the Authority which supervises the markets, between 2013 and 2016 the five executives allegedly implemented "commercial and reporting practices to artificially increase the circulation data of the newspaper", generating "a false information picture of the economic-financial situation of the company likely to provide false and misleading information regarding Il Sole 24 Ore shares, thus constituting market manipulation".
Consob also specifies that "the manipulative conduct is to be considered particularly serious" and must be classified as willful, "taking into account the fact that said parties have knowingly proposed, defined and ordered the implementation of commercial and reporting practices to artificially increase the circulation data of the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore”.
Meanwhile, the preliminary hearing for the inquiry into the past management of Il Sole 24 Ore is starting today. This morning the preliminary hearing against Napoletano (considered by the magistrates "de facto administrator" of the publishing group), Treu and Benito Benedini, former president of the publishing group, opened before the Gup of the Milan court Maria Cristina Mannocci. The alleged offenses are false corporate communications and information rigging.
The lawyers of Benedini and Treu have asked the Gup for a plea bargain and therefore for the exit from the proceeding. The agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office provides for a sentence of one year and six months for Benedini with payment of 100 thousand euros, while for Treu one year and eight months with payment of 300 thousand euros. Neapolitan, on the other hand, chose to be judged in the ordinary procedure.
“Only to avoid the notoriously typical times of the criminal trial, we have focused on the definition of the procedure with the ritual of the plea bargaining, which – as is well known – does not imply any acknowledgment of responsibility. Cavalier Benedini, in his very long entrepreneurial life, has always acted with the utmost transparency and fairness”. With these words the lawyer Giuseppe Bana, Benito Benedini's lawyer, explained the request for a plea bargain presented for his client.
But the most sensational news is that Confindustria, as a shareholder, (and in part Consob) has asked and obtained from the judge Maria Cristina Mannocci the right to bring a civil action. Better late than never. Confindustria, which under Marcegaglia's presidency had appointed both Treu as CEO and Napoletano as director, was well aware of the drift that the editorial group and the economic newspaper were taking but was slow to intervene. Now he's trying to redeem himself but the economic and reputational damage done to the Sole 24 Ore unfortunately remains.
