Call to financial authorities to intervene on controversial project bonds

Today Counter Balance and Re: Common sent a letter to financial authorities in London and Rome urging them to intervene on the issuance of project bonds linked to Passante di Mestre – a motorway under corruption investigation in Italy.

The letter signals to the financial authorities the risks linked to the issuance of a project bond by the company CAV SpA of Italy – which is to take place those days at the London Stock Exchange as well as Milan Stock Exchange. The letter urges financial authorities to acquire all relevant information from the banks emitting those bonds and in particular to check how they have taken into account and thoroughly communicated to investors the potential risk of money laundering associated with this operation.

In recent years Counter Balance and Re: Common have been closely monitoring the Passante di Mestre project – a project which was selected by the European Investment Bank and the European Commission to benefit from financing under the EU “Project Bond Initiative”. The project was hit by a serious corruption scandal in 2014 but is moving ahead despite ongoing anti-corruption investigations at national level and calls from the European Parliament not to finance the Passante di Mestre project.