Prosecutors ask seven years for former MPS chairman Mussari

Former GM, finance chief face six in alleged bank fraud

(ANSA) - Siena, June 6 - Prosecutors on Friday asked judges to convict and sentence Giuseppe Mussari, the former chairman at troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), to seven years in prison for fraud. They then asked for six years in prison for former general manager Antonio Vigni and former chief of finance Gianluca Baldassarri. MPS has also been at the center of a judicial investigation into its acquisition of smaller rival Antonveneta in 2008 as well as the derivatives trades the bank allegedly used to conceal losses.

The three are accused of market manipulation, false statements to the market and regulatory obstruction in relation to the Antonveneta deal and the derivatives trades. MPS recapitalized in 2012 and again in January 2013 when news circulated that top management had entered into secret derivatives contracts with Deutsche Bank and Nomura in order to hide estimated losses of between 500 million euros and 750 million euros in two of its divisions.