In September, the Trial on the 2011 EU Coup Will Take Place in Italy

PRESS RELEASE

In September, the Trial on the 2011 EU Coup Will Take Place in Italy

July 29, 2015 (EIRNS)—On Sept. 24, the trial against Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, and eight of their managers and analysts will take place in Trani, Italy. Indeed, it will be a trial on the coup d’état which took place in Summer 2011, when the European Union Commission, the European Central Bank, and some European countries plotted to overthrow the legitimate Italian government and replace it with a technocratic cabinet led by Mario Monti.

Since acts of subversion can be tried only in Rome, Trani prosecutor Michele Ruggiero has moved successfully by indicting the rating agencies for market manipulation. The downgrading of Italy’s rating in September 2011 was a key element in the plot to generate a financial emergency and justify the putsch.

One basis for the indictment is the fact that Morgan Stanley, one of S&P’s shareholders, had sold a derivatives contract with the Italian government which included the possibility to unilaterally close the contract should Italy’s rating be downgraded. So, when S&P downgraded Italy from A to BBB+ in September 2011, Morgan Stanley demanded the closure of the contract and—in the midst of a fiscal crisis and austerity demands—the immediate payment by Italy of €3 billion.

Instead of challenging the contract, Monti’s government quickly paid Morgan Stanley, albeit at a "discount" of €500 million. Thus, while cutting pensions and increasing taxes in an orgy of austerity as demanded by the "emergency," the Monti government liquidated €2.5 billion in a highly unusual derivatives scheme. The head of Morgan Stanley’s Italian division at the time was former Treasury Minister Domenico Siniscalco.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, former Prime Minister and former EU Commission President Romano Prodi, and former Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti have been called as witnesses; whereas the Banca d’Italia and the Stock Exchange Authority (Consob) have associated in the action with the prosecutors, the Treasury Ministry have not.