A Milan prosecutor on Wednesday
requested the acquittal of businessman Paolo Ligresti and two
others in a case of suspected false accounting and share-rigging
at the Fonsai insurance group.
The son of veteran financier Salvatore Ligresti gave
himself up to Italian police on the Swiss border at Chiasso June
29 after some two years' evading Italian justice in Switzerland.
Paolo Ligresti agreed to hand himself over after a judge
granted house arrest in the case.
In February finance police confiscated shares and bank
account deposits worth 9.5 million euros from Salvatore Ligresti
and his daughter Jonella as part of a money laundering inquiry.
The investigation follows the two being charged with false
accounting in the family insurance concern Fonsai and
manipulation of the market.
The shares and accounts were held at the Milan branch of
Unipol Banca protected a double company screen consisting of an
Italian trust company and three Luxembourg companies, Hike
Securities Spa, Canoe Securities Sa and Limbo Invest sa, finance
police sources said.
Finance police carried out the operation to prevent the
Ligrestis transferring assets abroad.
In July the entire Ligresti family was arrested in a graft
probe and in November family patriarch, veteran financier and
insurance magnate Salvatore went on trial for alleged corruption
along with former insurance watchdog Giancarlo Giannini.
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