Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. (MPS) is the fourth largest Italian commercial and retail bank and the oldest bank in the world.

In the last ten years MPS has committed a long series of serious violations related to the disclosure of false information to the market through financial statements and other official public documents. MPS has carried out numerous complex structured financial transactions aimed at altering its actual economic and financial situation to the detriment of investors.

Between 2013 and 2018, Consob, the Italian financial authorities, sanctioned MPS ten times for falsifying their 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 financial statements and for the non-compliance of their consolidated 2014 financial statement and the non-compliance of their June 2015 semi-annual financial report.

Despite four capital increases within a few years, MPS lost approximately 99.99% of its market value. Between 2016 and 2017, Consob suspended MPS shares from trading for almost a year. After being readmitted to trading, MPS lost more than 80% of its value in just over a year.

According to Consob’s General Director, Dr. Angelo Apponi, ‘The recent history of MPS represents a framework of fraudulent activities aimed at concealing the actual economic and financial situation of the issuer, as well as the negative outcomes of transactions carried out by the issuer’.

On December 11th, 2020, in accordance with the statute of limitation deadline for the Consob sanction no. 19459, Martingale Risk filed all dispute letters on behalf of 11 global institutional investors and 120 retail clients for a total estimated cumulative claim of €270 million.

Martingale Risk is now preparing an additional claim based on the October 15th, 2020 Milan first level penal trial, which convicted the former MPS CEO Fabrizio Viola and former chairman Alessandro Profumo to six years and former president of statutory auditors Paolo Salvadori to three and a half years. The former CEO and Chairman were also given pecuniary fines of € 2.5 million.

The result of the penal trial has confirmed our pre-existing legal analysis and financial opinion of the past booking actions of the Alexandria and Santorini derivative instruments. The lawsuit will focus on MPS's substantial adjustments on non-performing loans within their financial documents from 2012-2016 and for the alleged administrative manipulation and false corporate communication in financial statements between 2012 and the first half of 2015.

Our Proposal

Martingale Risk proposes to file a collective lawsuit as well as individual suits on the investors' behalf against Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A., which will be held at the Court of Siena.

The lawsuit is directed at obtaining repayment of the damages incurred from the investment losses between March 28th, 2013 to March 1st, 2018, given the confirmation of false corporate communication and manipulation in financial statements released to the market by the administrative penal trial result.

We work on a success fee basis, claiming our compensation as a percentage of the recovered amount, only once the clients will have received their repayment. Martingale Risk will fully finance the lawsuit and cover any potential fees or adverse costs arising from the dispute.

Terms and Conditions

1. Compensation: Martingale Risk will collect a Success Fee plus VAT calculated on the Losses Recovered from MPS, as resulting from: (a) the conclusion of a settlement agreement with MPS in the Negotiation or Litigation phase; (b) the issuance of a definitive successful court trial.

2. Expenses: Martingale Risk will pay all administrative and tax expenses incurred in the Litigation, such as: notification and registration expenses for documents filed to the Court and any administrative expenses and fees related to the experts eventually engaged by the Court. Martingale Risk will be liable to pay the legal adverse costs in case of an unsuccessful lawsuit.

3. Representation: The Client will sign a mandate providing Martingale Risk with Power of Attorney which includes the power to take every decision concerning the lawsuit, including the power to settle, to collect, and dispersed the recovered amount from MPS until the issuance of a definitive decision. The Client will also sign a Power of Attorney to the lawyer (s) directly involved in the litigation.

DISCLAIMER: THESE TERMS ARE INDICATIVE AND NON-BINDING AND CAN BE SUBJECT TO CHANGES PRIOR TO THE SIGNING OF THE MANDATE, GIVEN THE RESULTS OF THE PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS AND PRELIMINARY LEGAL OPINION. MARTINGALE RISK WILL RESERVE ALL THE RIGHTS TO DECLINE THE DEFENSE OF EACH CLIENT THAT IS DEEMED UNSUITABLE TO THE LAWSUIT. ALL DISPUTES RELATED TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE MANDATE WILL BE REGULATED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (ICC).

Open Case:

Collective Action Against Monte dei Paschi di Siena