DIAMOND SCAM-FRAUD IN ITALY | ACTIONS AGAINST BANCO BPM, INTESA SANPAOLO, UNICREDIT, MONTE PASCHI SIENA
Dimarco & Partners International Law Firm

Our Lawyers in Milan, Italy, provide judicial assistance to individual or entities that purchased diamonds and that were supposedly scammed from Italian banks (as Banco Bpm, Intesa San Paolo, Unicredit, Monte Paschi di Siena). The Italian banks were strongly advising their customers to invest in diamonds, as they were considered a safe investment and a safe-haven asset. It turned out that some of the involved banks had a commission reaching more than 25% of the investment made by the customer. On 30.10.2017 the AGCM authority the Italian competition authority), considered misleading the activities of Intermarket Diamond Business Spa (IDB) and Diamond Private Investment Spa (DPI) and of the involved banks.

The price of selling of the diamond established by IDB and DPI was not representing the real market value. They created and advertised their own price list, published on the economical newspaper "il sole 24 ore" making their customer believe that was the real market price (actually that values were 7/8 times more than the real value). In few words a customer that bought 100.000,00 euros of diamonds was effectively buying between 10.000,00 and 20.000,000 euros of product. The Clients were also informed periodically about the increase of the value of their diamonds that, of course, was not true. The banks were not only informing the Clients about the possibility of investing in diamonds but they were also pushing them to subscribe the investment.
The authority sanctioned the parties as follows: 2 millions IDB,  4 Millions Unicredit, 3,35 Millions Banco Bpm, 1 Million DPI, 3 Millions Banca Intesa and 2 Millions for Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
IDB, on January 2019, went bankrupt.
Recently the Criminal court of Milan issued some confiscation orders against Banco Bpm, Unicredit, Intesa San Paolo and MPS for a total amount of 700 Millions of euro.
It is possible for the Clients to provide the following claims against the banks, that are considered fully liable toward their customers as follows:

• Criminal action for fraud;
• Out of court actions and compulsory mediation procedure;
• Civil cases if it is not possible to solve amicably the matter.

Our Lawyers in Milan, specialized in banking law, provide all the actions against the bank finalized to the debt collection of the amount invested.
​We look forward to cooperate with you.