The trial in Bergamo on alleged irregularities in the management of Banca Ubi, later incorporated into Banca Intesa San Paolo, ended after three years of hearings with 29 acquittals. The acquittal of one of the most influential bankers in recent Italian history, the 81-year-old Giovanni Bazoli, stands out. The acquittal for Bazoli is on the merits, even if one of the two crimes of which he was accused, the trafficking of illicit influences, was prescribed since June, as also noted by the Prosecutor’s Office. The arguments of his defense however convinced the judges to a full acquittal.
Massiah was acquitted because the fact does not exist for three counts relating to the obstacle to the supervisory functions and for another charge for prescription. The Intesa San Paolo bank was also acquitted of the accusation of having violated law 231 of 2001. A single sentence of one year and six months (suspended sentence), after a ten-hour council chamber, to Franco Polotti, president at the time of the management board of Ubi.
The Bergamo Public Prosecutor had asked for the conviction for 26 defendants and acquittal for 4, including the bank. Penalties of 6 years and 2 months had been requested for Giovanni Bazoli, 4 years and 6 months for the former managing director of the bank then acquired by Intesa, Victor Massiah, 5 years and 4 months for Andrea Montrasio, chairman of the supervisory board and for Emilio Zanetti, chairman of the management board.
The crime hypotheses of the investigation coordinated by the prosecutor Fabio Pelosi were that of an obstacle to the supervisory functions for the alleged shareholder agreements in the process that gave rise to Ubi and the trafficking of illicit influences due to the hypothesis that, at the meeting of 20 April 2013 which renewed the positions of the supervisory board, blank proxies were collected, both through the structure and branches of the bank and through external structures to guarantee the desired vote.
The crime of unlawful influences on the assembly was prescribed last June, also due to a recent ruling by the Council which led to a recount, as announced by the prosecutor during the replies to the defensive speeches in which he had modified downward requests for this reason for this reason. condemnation. The prosecutor then requested the acquittal of the defendants who were accused only of this offense and a reduction of the request for a 6-month sentence for the defendants who were charged with both offenses.
Again as a result of the statute of limitations, the request for confiscation for the accused of 5.3 million euro related to the crime of illicit influence in the meeting of Ubi Banca on 20 April 2013 had also fallen. “I challenge anyone to prove that what I did not it was in the bank’s exclusive interest “, just as” no one will ever be able to claim that I acted for personal purposes “declared Bazoli in a preliminary hearing, assisted by the lawyer Stefano Lojacono.