S&P, MPS, FONSAI: THE EUPHORIA OF 2007 AT THE BARRIER. THOROUGHBREDS, FRESH INCREASES AND EVEN THE TALKING HEADS
The financial scandals that took place in 2007/08, in the supreme phase of the pre-crisis euphoria, hold the stage in Europe and in the USA.
A) On the Monte Paschi front, which recovered by 3,2% yesterday, the prosecution's indictment arrives: the contracts for the loans necessary for the purchase of Antonveneta have been modified after the communications to the market and to the supervisory bodies Among the suspects, in addition to the former president Giuseppe Mussari and the former general manager Antonio Vigni and Gianluca Baldassari, former head of the finance area, there are also the head of the legal area at the time Raffaele Rizzi and Marco Morelli, formerly manager of the Banca dei Territori of Intesa San Paolo, currently responsible for Italy of Merrill Lynch. It was Morelli who agreed with JP Morgan on the Fresh capital increase, in fact a loan to the Foundation with a very expensive total return swap contract.
Alessandro Profumo, president of Banca Mps does not believe that bribes were paid in the purchase of Banca Antonveneta by Mps. 'I think not' he says in response to a question during the broadcast 'Otto e Mezzo' on 'La7' and adds: 'The judiciary is investigating; if this were to be the case, we would restore the balance sheet of Monte dei Paschi because we would ask for the money back'. Profumo then added that the renewal of Mussari's mandate at the ABI in July, despite having already been investigated, 'in hindsight was a mistake and mistakes are made'. When asked for an opinion on Mussari, he replies: 'I don't have a positive opinion on Mussari'.
B) "This market is a top that is about to finish its round badly". So reads an email from an S&P analyst on subprime mortgages dated fall 2006. Another, from March 2007, borrows a Talking Heads song: "Subprime is boiling, and it's gonna bring this whole house down." This and much more can be read in the voluminous indictment that the US federal Justice Department, together with that of 16 states, has promoted against the agency: 5 billion in damages for "ignoring - says the indictment - one's own standards in judging mortgage-related securities and defrauding investors of $5 billion." McGraw-Hill, the rating agency's controlling shareholder, dropped about 6,5% after the announcement of the civil suit.
C) The ordinary shareholders' meetings of Fondiaria-Sai and Milano Assicurazioni have been called for 13 and 14 March to resolve on the proposed liability action against some former directors and statutory auditors, including the entire Ligresti family and former CEO Fausto Marchionni. The ad acta commissioner of Fonsai Matteo Caratozzolo underlines in the report on the liability action that "the consultancy entrusted to Salvatore Ligresti in the real estate sector served at most to give shape to the interference of the same in the strategy of use of the Fonsai group's available funds. In short – writes the expert – Salvatore Ligresti has received abnormal compensation with the aim of making the Fonsai group buy exclusively properties owned by related counterparties". The "amount of the damage caused - adds the commissioner it's huge, in the order of hundreds of millions of euros".
The commissioner does not limit himself to accusing the Ligresti family, but identifies "profiles of serious compensation liability" for 23 other members of the board of directors and boards of statutory auditors: the former CEO Fausto Marchionni, but also, among others, Antonio Talarico, Vincenzo La Russa, Cosimo Rucellai, Andrea Broggini, Salvatore Spiniello. Also targeted is the 4,7 million paid by Fonsai and Milan to Laita di Jonella Ligresti, a company "whose corporate purpose is the breeding of racing horses in order to participate in horse competitions".
