EX-CHIEF OF WORLD’S OLDEST BANK CONVICTED IN ITALY

Former Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) Bank president Alessandro Profumo and ex-CEO Fabrizio Viola were sentenced to six years in prison for fraud, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Both men were found guilty of false accounting in 2015 and share rigging in relation to Alexandria and Santorini derivatives. They were also fined 2.5 million euros each. Their lawyer said the sentence was "wrong" and said his clients would appeal.

In 2018, they were cleared of obstructing the banking oversight bodies of the Bank of Italy and bourse regulator CONSOB in a derivatives case.

MPS is the world's oldest bank and Italy's fourth biggest.