Sunday,
June 03, 2007
Italians Grumble: Goldman Sachs Is Running
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italians
Grumble That Goldman Sachs Is, in Effect, Running Their Country
The
By
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
From The Daily Telegraph
May 30, 2007
Italians grumble
that Goldman Sachs runs their country, much as the Jesuits ran countries during
the Counter-Reformation.
Prime Minister
Romano Prodi is an ex-Goldman Sachs man, as are the
central bank president, Mario Draghi, and the deputy
treasury chief, Massimo Tononi.
The price paid
for having so many friends in court is that the elite bank inevitably becomes
entangled in the financial scandals that so often swirl around the Italian
political class.
For the past
month, Goldman Sachs has been dragged into a widening corruption inquiry into
the Siemens-Italtel merger dating
back to the mid-1990s.
The inquiry has
moved uncomfortably close to Mr. Prodi, who was on
the Goldman Sachs payroll from 1990 to 1993 and again in 1997 after his first
stint as prime minister.
Politicians from
the Forza Italia party have jumped on suggestions
that Goldman Sachs may be involved, making damning allegations in the Chamber
of Deputies under parliamentary immunity.
The inquiry is
just one of several across
Prosecutors in
A Goldman Sachs
employee summoned for questioning earlier this month said the payment had been
made for an unknown third party. Italian Treasury Police raided the
They have also
obtained a letter to Siemens from the
At the time, Italtel was being privatized by the Italian state holding
company IRI, which Mr. Prodi had run in the 1980s and
would soon run again before becoming prime minister in 1994.
The letter said
Goldman Sachs
It is reported
that Goldman Sachs later secured the work as an adviser on the Siemens-Italtel merger. The bank refused to comment, deeming the
matter confidential.
"We refute
any suggestion that our actions are improper and we are co-operating fully with
the authorities in the investigation," said the bank.
The most
controversial was the sale of the Cirio-Bertolli-De
Rica food group in October 1993 to Fi. Svi, a shell-company, that sold it
immediately for 100 million pounds to Unilever, where Mr. Prodi
had been a paid consultant until weeks earlier. Credito Italiano had valued the
stake between 220 million and 340 million pounds.
Goldman Sachs was
deeply involved in this transaction. A memo from the bank
"Fi. Svi is going to call Prodi in order to have full support in this discussion with
Unilever," it said.
A
Ms. Geremia later told the Telegraph that intruders broke into
her offices. The case was shut down within weeks by superiors. She was exiled
to
Allegations of
wrongdoing by public figures come with a big health warning in
http://www.nysun.com/article/55430
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