MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors have asked for 13 former and current managers at Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MI:BMPS), Nomura (T:8604) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) to be sent to trial for a series of alleged financial crimes including false accounting, judicial sources said on Tuesday.
The alleged offences revolve around two complex derivatives trades, known as Santorini and Alexandria, which Monte Paschi's former management arranged with Deutsche Bank and Nomura to conceal losses, the sources said.
The case also involves a hybrid financial instrument called Fresh 2008 which Monte dei Paschi used to partly fund the acquisition of rival bank Antonveneta.
A court in Milan will now set a date for a preliminary hearing on the case, at the end of which a judge will decide whether or not to lay charges. The sources did not say when the hearing was likely to take place.
The alleged crimes relate to the 2008-2012 period and include market manipulation and obstructing supervisory activity as well as false accounting, the sources said.
All the managers involved and the banks have previously denied any wrongdoing. Nomura and Monte dei Paschi declined to comment, while it was not immediately possible to reach Deutsche Bank for a comment.
Under Italian law, a company can be held responsible if it is deemed that it failed to prevent, or attempt to prevent, a crime by an employee that benefited the company.
Monte dei Paschi emerged as the weakest lender in a Europe-wide review of lenders in 2014 and has had to tap the market on several occasions to shore up its balance sheet.
In 2013 the bank received a state bailout which it has since paid back. The treasury still owns around 4 percent of the lender. Monte Paschi has since closed the Santorini and Alexandria trades.