Veneto Banca, rigging prescribed In Treviso the trial goes on for three other crimes

The collapse of the former popular. Consoli are still contesting obstacles to supervision and forgery of the prospectus. Heard other texts, including the lawyer Campoccia

TREVISO. The statute of limitations knocks for the first time on the doors of the trial that sees the former number one of Veneto Banca, Vincenzo Consoli, at the bar for the offenses of stock manipulation, forgery of prospectus and obstacle to the supervision of Consob and Bank of Italy.

In exactly one week, Tuesday 26, the day after what will be the nineteenth hearing, it will be precisely the crime of bank manipulation contested against Consoli because, according to the prosecutor’s office, he put in place “tricks capable of provoking a sensitive alteration of the price of Veneto Banca shares “, an unlisted financial instrument that” went from a value of 21.25 euros in 2004 to a value of 40.75 euros in 2013 and which were then revalued during the liquidation of the shareholders in withdrawal (December 2015) for a value of € 7.3 “.

What will happen after 26, the date on which the crime formally lapses? The trial will in any case go on and the limitation will eventually be declared at the end of the trial when the judges will also express themselves in relation to the other disputed crimes, in particular those relating to the obstacle to supervision, for which a first-degree sentence will certainly be reached. .

The lawyer Campoccia witness

In the meantime, yesterday morning, the hearing of the witnesses of the defense of Consoli continued, represented in the courtroom by the lawyer Ermenegildo Costabile. Of the sixteen witnesses summoned, seven were present. Among these is the lawyer Stefano Campoccia, a lawyer from Treviso and vice president of the Order if Calcio, who remained “under pressure” for a couple of hours.

Campoccia was called to testify in the courtroom by virtue of his positions previously held as a director of Bim, the Banca Intermobiliare which had come under the control of the former Popolare di Montebelluna, after a long period at the head of Clarence, the company of leasing of the Montebelluna bank, and then as a member of the board of directors of Veneto Banca, from April 2014 to the same month of 2016.

Campoccia told in the classroom that the new board of directors of Veneto Banca, which took office in April 2014 and of which he himself was a member, had to act as a break with the past, after the “purge” of the old board of directors under pressure from the Bank of Italy, which after the second inspection in 2013, had requested a radical change in the management of the bank.

According to the lawyer, the decisive moment in the affair of the credit institution was represented by the transition from the supervision of the national and European authorities.

“In view of this moment – said Campoccia – the Bank of Italy gave us new parameters that were impossible to achieve in such a short time, so much so that other Italian banks were forced to recapitalize much more expensive than that imposed on Veneto Banca”.

In April 2015, two months after the blitz of the Guard di Finanza at the Veneto Banca headquarters in Trevignano, Campoccia said he had flown to Frankfurt and met with the top management of the ECB, who clearly made him understand that they no longer liked the presence of Consoli, then general manager, who resigned the following August. That was an unequivocal signal that Consoli was no longer pleasing to the supervisory authority. «I remember that I met Marc Trausch of the ECB in Frankfurt, at the end of a very long corridor, who immediately asked me point blank“ What about Mr Consoli? ”- What about Signor Consoli?».