UniCredit Bank close to mafia

UniCredit Bank, Italy’s largest and with activities in Slovakia and Czechia, often pops up when media describe ’Ndrangheta operations in the two countries. Czech daily MF Dnes says the bank helped Italian businessman Claudio Leo Personnettaza launder money via his in investments in Prague’s real estate. In Slovakia, the bank finances farms of Antonino Vadala and Diego Roda, as well as their bio-gas and photovoltaic power plants. When Vadala applied for a car leasing at a local UniCredit branch at the end of 2013, the branch turned him down due to his firms’ debts. Within an hour a BoD member called the branch and ordered to approve the leasing. He argued the bank’s Milan HQ had given the order. The bank would not comment.

(SME/6)