Former banker Julius Bär condemned for misappropriation

Domenico Petrella, a former executive at Bank Julius Bär, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months imprisonment and compensation of private accusers over the misappropriation of about €15 million, by the Court of Criminal Lugano, presided over by Judge Mauro Ermani, as reported by the Giornale del Ticino. The banker had cheated forty Italian customers by attracting approximately €15 million to play them at the Casino of Campione.

It confirmed substantially the indictment signed by the Public Prosecutor Raffaella Rigamonti who also confirmed allegations of repeated qualified embezzlement, repeated fraud and forgery of documents. The court took into account the defendant's cooperation.The Court did not consider the mitigating factor of diminished eligibility request by defense attorney Marco Masoni, and has instead taken the full cooperation into accounts offered by the accused since the opening of the investigation that judge Erman called it "total" and that allowed to speed up the investigation.