The investigation against former executives of the Italian bank MPS, who faced accusations of aggravated fraud amounting to €5.4 billion linked to non-performing loans, has been officially closed. Milan's investigating judge, Maria Idria Gurgo di Castelmenardo, has cleared Marco Morelli, the former CEO, Nicola Clarelli, an ex-director, and former presidents Alessandro Falciai and Stefania Bariatti. This decision comes after a previous ruling which had already absolved them in a main proceeding regarding the bank's finance practices.

The case originally stemmed from an allegation raised by Giuseppe Bivona, a partner at Bluebell Partners Limited, regarding a recapitalization that the bank received from the state in 2017. Prior to this new ruling, another investigating judge, Teresa De Pascale, had requested further investigation from the public prosecutor's office. However, this additional probe did not yield sufficient evidence to support the claims of manipulations in the bank's financial statements, leading the judge to conclude that the data in question could not be deemed false.

Judge Gurgo's ruling emphasized that there had been no misleading inducement to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Mef) in relation to the recapitalization issues that were under scrutiny, suggesting that the allegations against the former executives lacked substantive basis. The closure of this investigation impacts the future of these individuals in finance, as well as the reputation of MPS, which has been under significant scrutiny for its financial practices in previous years.