Thirteen former bankers from Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Nomura and Deutsche Bank were sentenced to jail on Friday after a case that shook Italy’s establishment and fomented the rise of populism in the country.
The sentences — among the harshest handed out to bankers convicted of financial crimes in living memory — were delivered in Milan after the men were found guilty of helping Monte dei Paschi hide hundreds of millions of euros in losses between 2008 and 2012, using complex derivatives contracts.
It seeks to bring to a close Italy’s biggest financial scandal, a tale of mismanagement and fraud, which led in 2017 to the nationalisation of Monte Paschi.
The Siena-based bank is the world’s oldest, founded in 1472.
Judges delivered a seven-year jail term to former Monte dei Paschi managers Giuseppe Mussari and Antonio Vigni, and five years for former Deutsche managers Michele Faissola, Michele Foresti and Dario Schiraldi. Sadeq Sayeed and Raffaele Ricci, former Nomura bankers, were sentenced to between three and five years.
