MPS: NPL ruling on 22 December; statute of limitations approaching for false accounting
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The verdict in the Monte dei Paschi non-performing loans trial – the last one still pending – is expected on 22 December. This decision will come at a time when the alleged offence of false accounting in the 2016 half-yearly report – the only remaining charge for which the prosecution has sought the conviction of certain former senior executives – will already have become time-barred (which is set to happen in the coming days). The date of the next hearing was set this morning by the Fourth Criminal Division of the Court of Milan, presided over by Anna Calabi, following the defence lawyers’ final rebuttals.
In September, the Public Prosecutor’s Office sought a three-year prison sentence solely for an alleged case of false accounting, relating to the half-yearly financial statements as at 30 June 2016, against Fabrizio Viola (former chief executive) and Massimo Tononi (former chairman). This alleged offence will soon be time-barred: in a matter of days, according to the prosecution; already time-barred, according to the defence (depending on which date is taken as the starting point for the calculation). The same prosecutors, Giovanna Cavalleri and Cristiana Roveda, have instead requested acquittal on all other charges (on the grounds that the offence was not committed, that the offence does not exist, or that the statute of limitations has expired), thereby fully exonerating the former chairman of Rocca Salimbeni, Alessandro Profumo, and the former director Arturo Betunio.
At the heart of these first-instance proceedings, the investigations for which began around ten years ago, lies the recording of NPLs in the institution’s accounts during the period 2013–2016, bringing together over time the two strands ‘ter’ and ‘quater’.
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