MILAN (Reuters) - The governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, is among those under investigation in the Brescia prosecutor's investigation alleging the crime of abuse of official acts in the handling by Milan magistrates of two investigation files on Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

This was reported by a source with direct knowledge of the dossier after the news was published today by the daily La Verità.

From the Bank of Italy they say that the governor has not been served with any document and that the institution will assess the veracity of the reported allegations.

The governor's enrollment is a due act, consequent to the complaints filed by the adviser of funds and shareholders of Mps, Giuseppe Bivona, and to a report by the Milan Prosecutor General's Office on an adviser to the prosecutors in the Lombard capital, explains the source close to the matter.

Visco is listed in the register of suspects for "false corporate communications," because that is the hypothesis of crime put forward in the plaintiffs' complaints, and with the hypothesis contained in the lawsuit, the person being reported must be registered as a matter of course.

The complaint alleges that Bankitalia between 2012 and 2015 received, without the supervisory body acting accordingly, 27 complaints pointing out hypotheses of false financial statements against the then top management of Mps.

AFTER FILINGS, ACTS WOULD RETURN TO MILAN

The Brescia prosecutor's office, called to deal with the matter because it has jurisdiction over proceedings involving magistrates in Milan, has already requested and obtained the filing of the three Milanese prosecutors who dealt with the first file that was the subject of the complaints, the one on the handling of the investigation against former Mps chairman Alessandro Profumo and former CEO Fabrizio Viola on the Alexandria and Santorini transactions.

As for the second Milanese file - that on the impaired loans of the Sienese bank, also charged to Profumo, Viola and others - Brescia requested that former Milan chief prosecutor Francesco Greco be dismissed.

On the request, after opposition filed by the complainants, a preliminary hearing judge in Brescia will decide on April 12.

Should the motion to dismiss be granted, the position of the other suspects, in addition to Visco two Consob officials, two Bankitalia officials and three consultants of the Milan prosecutors, will be sent back to the prosecutor's office in the Lombard capital.

Here, says the source with direct knowledge of the dossier, it is expected that the most likely solution will be the dismissal of all remaining suspects.

SANTORINI, ALEXANDRIA AND IMPAIRED LOANS

The first file at the center of the matter originates from the investigation conducted by Milan prosecutors against Viola and Profumo for false accounting and market rigging in connection with the accounting of the Santorini and Alexandria derivatives between 2012 and 2015.

The Milan Prosecutor's Office had already asked at the end of the preliminary investigation for the file to be archived, but the opposition of some small shareholders was upheld by a first judge who ordered the compulsory indictment.

Another Gup, in April 2018, had then remanded the three defendants for trial, despite the fact that the prosecution had again asked for their acquittal, arguing that they had followed Consob and Bankitalia's instructions in choosing the accounting method for the two transactions.

In October 2020, the court had then sentenced Viola and Profumo to six years' imprisonment, despite the fact that the prosecution had still asked for their acquittal, while the civil parties, representing small shareholders, criticizing the prosecutors' position, had asked for their conviction.

The defendants, who have always rejected the charges,have appealed and the appeal trial has yet to begin.

After his conviction at first instance, Bivona filed a complaint against the three prosecutors, Stefano Civardi, Giordano Baggio, and Mauro Clerici, which were later dismissed by the Brescia judge.

The second Brescia file, on the other hand, deals with the investigation conducted by the Milan prosecutor's office into the accounting of impaired loans at the Siena-based bank from 2012 to the half-year financial report of July 29, 2016.

In this case, too, the prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed.

The small shareholders filed an opposition, and Milan judge Guido Salvini in July 2019 rejected the request for dismissal, asking for new investigations.

The judge in particular cited a consultancy he had ordered that allegedly contradicted what the prosecutors' experts had reconstructed.

At the end of the further investigation, Milan prosecutors last December requested indictments for, among others, Profumo, Viola, and former chairman Massimo Tononi for false accounting and market manipulation.

A judge will have to schedule a preliminary hearing at the end of which he will determine whether to grant the prosecutors' requests for trial or acquit the defendants.

A complaint was also sent to the Brescia prosecutor's office for this matter, which, as mentioned, has filed a request for the former chief prosecutor of Milan to be dismissed.

(Emilio Parodi, editing Giselda Vagnoni, ; +39 06 8030 7744)