Vincenzo Consoli, former chief executive officer and general manager of Veneto Bankis under house arrest. In the early hours of this morning, Tuesday, soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza, under the Special Currency Police Unit and the Venice Tax Police Unit, proceeded with the execution of an order issued by the GIP of the Court of Rome, with which house arrest was ordered against him for the crimes of hindering the exercise of the functions of the public supervisory and market-rigging authorities. The operation also made it possible to seize goods, properties, securities and liquidity for an estimated total value of 45,425 million, including a property valued at 1,8 million. During the raid, "house searches were carried out on 14 suspects".
The activity of the judicial police derives from an articulated investigation directed by the Prosecutor of the Republic of Rome and delegated to the Special Nucleus of Currency Police and to the Nucleus of Tax Police of Venice, "thanks to which light was shed on multiple obstructive conduct perpetrated to the detriment of Bank of Italy and Consob".
THE "KISSED" OPERATIONS
In the investigation into Veneto Banca by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, a series of so-called “kissed” operations by virtue of which it was the same bank that financed important customers so that they bought shares of the same credit institution. The real economic significance of these operations, hidden under an apparently linear guise, reads a note from the Guardia di Finanza, is clear: the 'financed' customer held Veneto Banca securities on behalf of the bank. Sometimes this would also have happened through the 'recruitment' of compliant investors, willing to temporarily take over large portions of subordinated bonds, relieving the bank of the burden of deducting the equivalent value from the regulatory capital, as instead prescribed by the Bank of Italy. In practice, these too were real temporary parking of securities which, in reality, came under the ownership of the issuer Veneto Banca.
OVERESTIMATED HERITAGE
According to the serious circumstantial picture that emerged from the investigation by the Rome Public Prosecutor and the Guardia di Finanza, the conduct of the former top management of Veneto Banca, with kissed loans and parking of securities, led to the watering down of the bank's regulatory capital, which, according to the rules of the Bank of Italy, it should have been adjusted so as to highlight its real value, indicating the true amount of the loans still effectively collectible. Instead, in the periodic reports to the Bank of Italy, we read in a note from the Guardia di Finanza, Veneto Banca continued to indicate an overestimated value of the regulatory capital compared to the actual one, masking its real consistency.
