Former Monte Paschi chief freed from house arrest

[WildestDreams]

Former Monte Paschi chief freed from house arrest

Reuters
October 18, 2013, 8:44 am

People are reflected in the window of a Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena bank in Rome January 29, 2013. REUTERS/Max Rossi

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Supreme Court ordered the immediate release from house arrest of former Banca Monte Paschi di Siena finance chief Gianluca Baldassari, one of his lawyers said on Thursday.

The country's highest court cancelled two rulings from courts in Florence and Monte Paschi's medieval hometown of Siena, which ordered that Baldassari be placed into precautionary custody, said lawyer Stefano Cipriani.

The former head of finance at the scandal-plagued bank is accused along with two other former executives of concealing Monte Paschi's losses from lending regulator the Bank of Italy.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Monte Paschi's former management misled regulators about a costly 2008 acquisition and risky derivatives trades. The bank took a 4 billion euro (3.38 billion pounds) state bailout earlier this year.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, writing by Isla Binnie; editing by Gunna Dickson)