He spied on Mattarella, Meloni, and VIP accounts: investigation into the banker concluded, seven other people implicated

Bari – He spied on the sensitive financial data of over 3500 clients, including President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: the investigation into Vincenzo Coviello, a former employee of the Intesa Sanpaolo bank, has been concluded. The investigation also includes seven other individuals who were then employees of the same bank, which is listed among the injured parties in the investigation.

The former Intesa Sanpaolo bank employee secretly monitored the financial data of 3572 clients.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, which declared the preliminary investigation concluded, the former Intesa Sanpaolo employee, formerly employed at the Agribusiness office in Bisceglie and fired in August 2024, for years—using his own credentials—is said to have "covertly, systematically, and extensively" monitored the sensitive and financial data of 3.572 customers. Victims of this "asset espionage" include President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Senate President Ignazio Maria La Russa, and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto.

"The acquisition of this sensitive data has seriously jeopardized not only the right to privacy of individuals, but the very security of democratic institutions." This is according to a statement from the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the investigation. Investigators describe the "compulsive and repetitive nature of the unauthorized access, which multiplied in an almost obsessive manner across a vast number of individuals."

According to the investigation, the 54-year-old from Bitonto began monitoring customers in January 2020 and continued consistently until the end of April 2024. "The severity and scope of the intrusions," the Prosecutor's Office explains, "have given the investigation inevitable national prominence, drawing the utmost attention of institutional leaders. Demonstrating the overriding central interest in definitively curbing such an alarming and widespread illicit phenomenon, the investigation has seen the qualified intervention of the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate," which "unequivocally certifies that protecting cybersecurity and combating all forms of financial espionage are an absolute and essential requirement for the defense of the country."

Seven more bank employees have emerged as 'unfaithful' to their positions under scrutiny by the prosecutors where they worked.

But Coviello is not the only suspect in the Bari prosecutor's investigation; seven other Intesa Sanpaolo employees are implicated in the probe into alleged asset espionage. Today, the Bari Carabinieri served a notice of conclusion of the preliminary investigation on the 54-year-old man from Bitonto, who was an employee at the bank's Bisceglie branch at the time of the alleged incidents. The seven suspects have been formally removed from the case, and their files have already been forwarded to other judicial offices throughout Italy.

The investigation, the Bari Public Prosecutor's Office explains in a statement, has confirmed that "this is not an isolated case." The charges against the other seven individuals, all employees of the same bank, involve "conduct entirely similar to that of the main suspect, a symptom of a worrying vulnerability to the allure of illicit curiosity or dossier-building, albeit less offensive, less frequent, and less extensive, and not aimed at sensitive institutional targets."

The investigation into Intesa San Paolo, the bank that fired Coviello and filed a complaint, has been closed.

The Bari Public Prosecutor's Office has also closed the investigation against Intesa Sanpaolo, which was initially involved as the administrative manager in the proceedings against former Bisceglie branch employee Vincenzo Coviello. The bank itself announced the closure, noting that the dismissal order dates back to June 10. Intesa Sanpaolo stated that investigators have determined "the clear absence of any interest or advantage for the Bank" and the "adequacy of the organizational model," as the bank "demonstrated proactive cooperation and a commitment to absolute transparency from the earliest stages of the investigation." "In the matter under examination," the dismissal states, "the perpetrator acted exclusively in his own interest (or that of third parties), causing irreparable harm to the Bank."

"Coviello's conduct," he concludes, "is embodied in a flagrant breach of trust and willful disregard for the operating instructions given to him, making the credit institution the true and sole injured party in the affair." According to the Prosecutor's Office, "the Bank's complete lack of involvement in the criminal plan is clearly demonstrated by the institution's prompt and firm reaction to protect itself," from the employee's dismissal on August 8, 2024, to the formal complaint filed a few days later.

The Prosecutor's Office then observes that "the constant implementation of security measures, also documented through the 'Nemo Program,' demonstrates a concrete and ongoing commitment to protecting customer data" which "radically excludes the possibility of 'organizational negligence'."