Italy’s former central bank chief gets prison sentence

ROME—An Italian court on Monday sentenced the former head of the Bank of Italy to three years and six months in prison for trying to block a foreign takeover of an Italian bank in a scandal that broke in 2005.

Antonio Fazio was accused of trying to get Italian insurance company Unipol to take over Banca Nazionale del Lavoro to block a bid by Spanish bank BBVA.

The trial began in February 2010. Giovanni Consorte, the former head of Unipol, was also sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison.

Francesco Frasca, a former aide to Fazio, was acquitted.

Fazio and Consorte were also sentenced to pay a fine of 1.3 million euros ($1.8 million), while Unipol will have to pay a fine of 720,000 euros and 15 million euros for possible compensation payments.

Fazio’s lawyers have said they will appeal against the judgment.

The scandal surfaced in 2005 when irregularities were found in takeover bids of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by Unipol and of Antonveneta by Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) in order to block BBVA and Dutch bank ABN Amro.

Fazio was accused of favoring Unipol and BPI to defend Italian banks.

He resigned in December 2005 and was replaced by Mario Draghi, who is now headed for Frankfurt to take over as European Central Bank president.

In a separate trial on BPI’s Antonveneta bid, Fazio was sentenced in May to four years in prison and a fine of 1.5 million euros. He was also banned from holding any public office for four years.