He spied on Mattarella and Meloni’s bank accounts; investigation into former bank employee closed

Vincenzo Coviello, aged 54, from Bitonto in the province of Bari, an employee of the Agribusiness branch of Banca Intesa San Paolo in Barletta – specifically the Bisceglie sub-branch – was dismissed in August 2024, in the BAT area, was dismissed in August 2024. He is alleged to have repeatedly spied on the bank accounts of political figures and institutional representatives at the highest national levels, such as the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the Prime Ministers, the President of the Constitutional Court, various ministers (Defence, Foreign Affairs, Tourism, Regional Affairs, etc.), Members of Parliament, senators, Members of the European Parliament, and the Governor of the Bank of Italia. The man has been served with a notice of the conclusion of the preliminary investigations, summoning him to appear for questioning, by the Public Prosecutor of Bari, Roberto Rossi, and the Deputy Public Prosecutor of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, Bruna Manganelli. The alleged offences, amongst others, include continued and aggravated unauthorised access to a computer system and unauthorised access to the financial data of numerous institutions forming the foundation of the Republic. The investigation progressed thanks to the acquisition and analysis of the credit institution’s system logs and digital traces, data which enabled investigators to reconstruct in detail the intricate network of alleged intrusions. The investigation was triggered by a complaint from an account holder in July 2024. The Public Prosecutor’s Office emphasises that the inquiry required “an enormous operational effort”. “In this context, it is only right to highlight the crucial role and the exceptional professionalism of the local Carabinieri Judicial Police Unit. The judicial police, working with absolute dedication and with the support of technical consultants specialising in combating cybercrime, were able to sift through a vast amount of digital data, unravelling an investigation of exceptional technical complexity that shed light on a breach of the company’s IT systems on an unprecedented scale”. The situation that has emerged is described as “extremely serious”, and characterised “by the compulsive and repeated nature of the unauthorised access, which multiplied in an almost obsessive manner across a vast number of individuals”.

The intrusions went undetected for years: investigations have in fact established that they are believed to have begun in January 2020 and continued, on a regular basis, until the end of April 2024. By exploiting his operational credentials and his role within the company, the unfaithful employee is alleged to have carried out covert, systematic and prolonged, repeatedly and deliberately breaching the sensitive and financial data of as many as 3,572 clients, including high-ranking state officials, representatives of institutions and members of the current political and executive leadership. The acquisition of this sensitive data is said to have exposed ‘not only individuals’ right to privacy but also the very security of democratic institutions to serious risk. The gravity and scale of the breaches have inevitably brought the investigation to national attention, drawing the utmost attention of the highest levels of government’. As evidence of the priority given to putting a definitive stop to such an alarming and widespread illegal phenomenon, the investigation involved the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate (DNA). The involvement of this body “unequivocally confirms that safeguarding cyber security and combating all forms of financial espionage are an absolute and indispensable requirement for the defence of the country”, the Public Prosecutor’s Office further emphasises. “The investigators’ tireless work has also made it possible to establish that this is not an isolated incident.” During the course of the investigation, evidence of liability emerged against seven other individuals, all employees of the same credit institution. These individuals engaged in conduct entirely analogous to that of the main suspect, “a sign of a worrying vulnerability to the allure of illicit curiosity or the compilation of dossiers, albeit characterised by a lower degree of offensiveness, frequency and scale, and not directed at sensitive institutional targets”.

For these reasons, and in order to ensure the proceedings proceed as swiftly as possible, the cases against these seven suspects have been formally dismissed and the relevant files have already been transferred to the appropriate judicial authorities across the country. The main suspect is today charged, under a single set of charges, with the offence of unauthorised access to a computer or telecommunications system, aggravated by the fact that the banking infrastructure targeted is formally included within the National Cyber Security Perimeter, making the attack a direct threat to the country’s critical infrastructure; the unlawful procurement of information concerning national security, having acquired secret information focusing in particular on the transactions of members of the national political leadership; and, finally, multiple and systematic breaches of data protection legislation, for having unlawfully processed and potentially disseminated highly sensitive personal data. The offences are alleged to have occurred most intensively between 2018 and 2023. Between 21 February 2022 and 24 April 2024, Coviello is alleged to have carried out a total of 6,573 unauthorised accesses and enquiries into the bank accounts of 3,541 customers at 685 branches of Intesa San Paolo. Among the political and institutional figures ‘spied on’ were Sergio Mattarella, Giorgia Meloni, Mario Draghi, Luigi Di Maio, Guido Crosetto, Ignazio La Russa, Matteo Renzi, Silvio Berlusconi, Ignazio Visco, Giuliano Amato, Maria Stella Gelmini, Daniela Santanchè, Mara Carfagna, Marta Fascina, Vittorio Sgarbi, Enrico Letta, Umberto Bossi, Francesco Boccia, Carlo Calenda and Raffaele Fitto.