VICENZA – They called them “the Praetorians”. And although no one has ever explained, in the hall of the People of Vicenza all sensed what was their mission: to control the controllers. Now they say that this has always been the fixed idea of Gianni Zonin, president of the bank from 1996 to last November 23. And ‘he was already known as the king of wines, to mark the rise and fall of this institution, which has spread from the Veneto in Italy with 5,000 employees and 482 branches. A house of cards in ashes, burning in a few months EUR 6.2 billion and leaving on the pavement 118,000 members who had invested their savings in shares increased from 62.5 euro value of ten cents. On June 2, the victims of the crash protested outside the villa of Zonin, asking the judiciary to kidnap her. But officially it is no longer his, because he is freed of all property, perhaps ready to spend his old age in his foreign possessions. The collapse was a breeze while investigations of the prosecutors who have ousted the institute’s summit are slow, so as not predict developments before the autumn. Yet over the years the alarm bells about the soundness of the bank, which sponsored sports teams and financed by Oscar films such as the “Great Beauty”, there have been: from 2001 to 2014 we have been exposed, the Bank of Italy inspections and two investigations of Prosecutor that they should deepen their elements then proved decisive in the collapse of the chest Vicenza.
for example, according to the findings by the ECB in the past years, the growth of BPVi that in the twenty years of Zonin has led to the acquisition of Banca Nuova Dear Prato was supported by requiring members purchase shares of the same bank as a condition for granting loans. A practice denounced by groups of small investors already at the beginning of the Presidency Gianni Zonin. “From the beginning, his intent was to shelter the Popolare di Vicenza from audits and legal problems – says Renato Bertelle, Malo’s lawyer, national president BPVi shareholders -. How did it? With appointments and recruitment. He created a safety net, to prevent franasse everything. he tried to put on the payroll those who could bother him, or their leaders. And in many cases, have it done. ” It is no coincidence that one of the first initiatives of the new CEO Francesco Iorio there was the replacement of the “Praetorian Guard”, enrolled to the institutions’ leaders that they should keep the bank’s control. revolving doors that allowed to move from the ranks of the judiciary, the Guardia di Finanza, the Bank of Italy to those of the People.
The cracks and earnings. The investigations initiated by the Prosecutor of Vicenza on managing BPVi so far scuppered sonostate storages, prescription of criminal acts and rulings not to prosecute, came after years from the opening of the files. Two decades of missed opportunities. “The thing that hurts the most, seeing the shareholders who have lost everything, is that already in 2001 the cracks were visible – said Antonio Tanza, a lawyer and vice president of Adusbef, which before 2008 had filed 19 complaints against administrators Vicenza -. And are those same cracks that have widened up to cause the crash. ” The epilogue was the rescue by Atlas Fund, forced to rake in 1.5 billion for all the shares of the bank, after the flop of capital subscription. “It is absurd that we have come to that. The premise of the disaster were clear fifteen years ago,” concludes Tanza.
The Bank of Italy inspection. In 2001 the Bank of Italy has a ‘ inspection on Popolare di Vicenza, the first since Zonin is president. At the center of the investigation, the criteria by which the People assessed the action. The inspectors, working from February to July, concluded that the value of 85,196 lire (44 euro) was “not very objective.” And the bank, although it was at the beginning of the Zonin presidency, was already characterized by a “top-down management model which limits the activities of the board.” Zonin single opponent in the board is the lawyer Gianfranco Rigon, who in 1999 left the vice presidency. According to him, “the role assumed allegiance to the authoritarian and autocratic management of Zonin”. Even then there is an enlightening episode, the Advocate Bertelle: “The story sounds incredible, but it is the records of the investigation in Milan on Antonveneta. Nicola Stabile, who in 2001 was the Bank of Italy inspection team, reported having received a invitation from Zonin to spend the holidays in his estate in the Chianti “. Not only. Louis Love, official of the National Street Watch having signed that occurs, then it will be called the People in charge of the Audit. Similarly Andrea Monorchio, after thirteen years as Accountant General of the State, will be appointed on the board of BPVi up to become its vice president in 2014. The man who refereed the budgets of the country becomes a kind of Zonin ambassador in Roman palaces of power .
family affairs. the reports that have started the inspection of the Bank of Italy end up on the tables of the Prosecutor of Vicenza, that in the same 2001 he opened an inquiry . Zonin is under investigation for false accounting. According to the complaints, the directors were going to disappear from the statement of 1998 almost 58 billion pounds of losses, the result of purchase of derivatives. Pm Vicenza are brought to the attention of even some real estate transactions undertaken by the bank in 1999 with the company Querciola Srl directed by Silvano Zonin, brother Gianni. The institution would pay rent to an excessive value, with damage to members. The then chief prosecutor, Antonio Fojadelli, holds sole dossier. Expert in organized crime – had led investigations on mala del Brenta – he asks archiving. The investigating judge Cecilia Carreri rejects the application and orders the compulsory charge for Zonin. But in 2005 the court is overwhelmed by a scandal from the dark contours, born of the publication of his picture in the local newspaper. Zonin for the story ends with a judgment of non-suit. Fojadelli in 2011 leaves the judiciary and three years later Zonin calls him on the board of the North East Merchant, held by Banca Popolare di Vicenza. Directly by the financial police who arrive Giuseppe Ferrante, former head of the police squad Tax Vicenza, since 2006 the manager of the bank’s anti-money laundering. Even the lawyer Massimo Pecori, son of one of the flagship of the town attorney pm, get assignments for the institute. But, as the same, the People says he “has hundreds of legal contract.” The Zonin institution is in fact the symbol of wealth in a Northeast at that time knows no crisis.
The exhibits of 2008. ADUSBEF March 18, 2008 Report to the Bank of Italy and Vicenza attorney “illegitimate appeal by the People to the subordinated bond to raise 220 million of the total 950 to strengthen capital” and denounces “the incredible value of the share price.” For the first time, reference is made to “extortion methods to become shareholders, punishment, denial of loans, mortgages, trust”, assumptions underlying the current investigations initiated after the collapse. In 2008, the prosecutor of Vicenza is Ivano Nelson Salvarani. The investigation was entrusted to Angela Barbaglio pm, April 15, 2009 which asks filing, “not credible recognizing elements of an offense.” On April 21, the office of the investigating judge of Vicenza closes the file without even mentioning it to ADUSBEF. Meanwhile, Zonin reinforces the fortress around the bank, continuing to recruit magistrates and men of the summit of banking institutions. By the end of 2008 comes Mario Sommella, hired as a clerk of the General Secretariat of the institute, the same role he had held in the Bank of Italy.
The revolving doors. Luigi love and Mario Sommella are not the only men of the Bank of Italy summit to land in Vicenza. In 2013 Zonin hires to institutional relations BPVI Gianandrea Hawks. Former member of the secretariat when the governor was Mario Draghi, had conducted a second inspection on Popolare di Vicenza, the results of which form the backbone of the current investigation of the Vicenza attorney on Zonin management. In December 2012, the assessment shall conclude with a “verdict partially unfavorable” and without sanctions. As “suffering areas” shows the valuation of the assets received as collateral for the loans. What occurs does not highlight all the way is the heart of the problem: the mechanism of granting loans in exchange of shares of the bank, which will be made explicit only fifteen months after the intervention of the ECB, with accounts irremediably compromised.
In 2012 Zonin is even stronger, as the group guide. For the past year the share price was fixed at 62.5 Euros and the number of members (which in 2008 were 60 thousand) leavens. It is during those months that the board of directors of Banca Nuova institution with 100 branches in Sicily, created in 2000 to Palermo from BPVi – appointment as independent director Manuela Romei Pasetti, former President of the Court of Appeal of Venice, competent on the territory of Vicenza. “Zonin, as always in his life, he made it big even when it came to composing the board of directors of foundations and subsidiaries – says the lawyer Bertelle – towards the end of his adventure in the bank, had so much power to bring in the house prefects and diplomats “. The prefect is Sergio Porena, representative of the Interior in Vicenza between 1989 and 1991, and already probiviro BPVI. Zonin opens the doors of the Roi Foundation Board of Directors, of which he is president. The diplomat Sergio Vento, former ambassador to Paris, hired by Zonin as vice president of North East Merchant Two, asset management companies BPVI. Nothing extraordinary. In provincial towns like Vicenza, Arezzo, Treviso, Chieti, Ancona, Ferrara local institutions were the heart of wealth and power, lavished funds, commissions and offering prestigious chairs. In each city it is a similar script is repeated, with controllers unable to recognize the signs of the collapse.
And now the price of the great illusion they pay thousands of investors. Without anyone poses the problem of changing the rules and create more effective supervisory mechanisms. A week ago, during the visit of Sergio Mattarella in Asiago, a group of shareholders of Popolare di Vicenza, a representative of the many who have seen the value of their investments go from 62.5 euro per share only ten cents, he presented him an appeal: “we were taught to roll up our sleeves and work even harder to rebuild what we have lost, but we do not want to hear denigrate or deride our industry. we want justice, we want those responsible for this collapse are made to face their responsibilities . “
f.vanni@repubblica.it
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