How did the politicians in Italy get caught up in a “bank fraud” scandal? | Explanatory news

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is at the center of a “spying scandal” in which an employee of the bank branch of Italy’s largest bank is alleged to have illegally accessed and “spyed” on thousands of private accounts .

An employee of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo has been accused of unauthorized access to more than 3,500 accounts of politicians, businessmen, celebrities and athletes, violating privacy laws and threatening national security.

Bank clerk Vincenzo Coviello, 52, said he was motivated by “curiosity” and frustrated in his career. He told authorities he did not keep a record of the banking activity he had access to, which reveals customer whereabouts and other sensitive data, and denied sharing the information with anyone.

Meloni, however, has turned the incident into a national scandal, saying that “pressure groups” who sought to oust her from office and interfere with democracy were actually behind Coviello’s actions.

So what really happened?

How were the accounts accessed and who did they belong to?

Coviello, an employee at a branch in Bisceglie, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, began his alleged espionage activity in February 2022. For more than two years, he illegally accessed the accounts customers’ personal information 6,976 times, according to a police investigation.

His targets allegedly included Meloni; his sister Arianna, the coordinator of the secretariat of the governing party, Brothers of Italy; and the ex-companion of the Prime Minister Andrea Giambruno.

The long list of politicians whose accounts were accessed also includes Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanch and Senate President Ignazio La Russa.

Coviello is also accused of spying on the financial affairs of the heirs of late businessman and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, as well as businessman Lapo Elkann, ex-footballer Francesco Totti and singer Al Bano.

What kind of information was accessed and what was done with it?

Coviello’s position within the bank gave him access to customer information, including the times and locations of cash withdrawals, online and card payments and wire transfers.

The information obtained is sensitive and could be used to find out a person’s whereabouts, contacts, business relationships, properties and debts.

This type of information could have been downloaded, saved and sold to business competitors, political opponents or a wide range of scammers looking to blackmail or otherwise intimidate politicians and celebrities. The dark web is one avenue investigators are still looking into to find out if any of the information was, in fact, sold.

However, Coviello has denied saving and sharing the information, arguing instead that he acted under a “psychological compulsion” for which he had sought professional help.

It is not yet clear whether the information was sold or otherwise disclosed.

Is there a police investigation?

The Bari prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation. The secretary has been accused of violating privacy laws and threatening national security with unidentified accomplices.

Roberto Rossi, Bari’s prosecutor, said Coviello probably acted with someone else who gave him access to the files.

However, the secretary maintains that he acted alone. Italy’s Carabinieri police are reviewing his finances to determine if he has received any payments.

Coviello was fired from his position in August after Banca Intesa Sanpaolo launched an internal disciplinary action that uncovered evidence of his alleged illegal activity.

Why does Meloni say this is part of a larger plot to oust her from office?

Meloni charges that the spying was an attempt to undermine his government, but the ongoing investigation has so far produced no evidence to support his claim.

“The pressure groups don’t accept having someone in government who doesn’t bow to pressure and who can’t be blackmailed, so maybe they try to get rid of him by other means,” he told the TG5 newsletter. “But I’m afraid they won’t get rid of me.”

The leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party said the politicians whose accounts were accessed were almost all from her side of the political spectrum.

It is unclear whether this was the case. Italian media reported that search queries operated by the secretary appeared to be random and had targeted the accounts of people across the political spectrum.

This is not the first incident that Meloni claims is part of a larger plot to oust her.

This year, Antonio Laudati, a magistrate, and Pasquale Striano, an officer of the financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, which is an Italian police agency that answers to the Minister of Economy and Finance, accessed the files of the Anti – Mafia Investigation Directorate on the prime minister and members of his government without prior authorization.

The reasons for Laudati and Striano’s move are being investigated.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said these incidents raised the “strong suspicion of an attempt to alter the course of democracy”, but so far no such plot has been uncovered.