Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena asked for a plea-bargain agreement in a probe involving its former managers for allegedly falsifying Italy’s third-largest bank’s accounts and manipulating the market.
Monte Paschi’s request was agreed with prosecutors in the Milan investigation, in which the bank is suspected of being responsible for a range of alleged crimes committed by its former executives, the Siena-based lender said in a statement yesterday. If Paschi’s request is accepted by the judge the bank will need to forfeit €10mn ($11mn) and pay a fine of €600,000.
Prosecutors have been investigating how Monte Paschi’s former managers misrepresented the lender’s finances in the years before it sought a government bailout. The Italian lender used derivative transactions to mask losses and was later forced to restate its accounts.
Prosecutors are seeking charges against former executives of the bank along with ex-managers of Deutsche Bank and Nomura Holdings for colluding to misrepresent Paschi’s finances.