Montepaschi Siena in the eye of the storm

Newly-elected president of Italy’s professional basketball league and general manager of Montepaschi Siena Ferdinando Minucci has been arrested on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, tax evasion and fraud.

Former general secretary of Siena, Olga Finetti, and owners of two advertising companies, Stefano Sammarini and Nicola Lombardini, were also arrested on the same charges following a two-year probe dubbed by investigators as ‘Time Out’.

The four suspects allegedly fiddled the books, issued false invoices and presented false tax returns at Montepaschi Siena between 2006 and 2012 to an estimated total value of 30 million euros. On Thursday finance police also seized assets to a total value of 14 million euros as part of the probe.

Minucci, who was also Siena’s chairman from 2008 to 2013, was elected to replace Valentino Renzi as president of Lega Basket Serie A in February and is due to take up his new post on July 1.

Several names of Basketball players have also been named in the investigation and are expected to be heard by the Italian financial police. The name that is mentioned most often is that of Lithuanian Ksistof Lavrinovic and € 2,490,000 in unpaid taxes.