Right Code, Wrong Code

Ever heard of San Marino? Possibly. For those of you out there who do not know, San Marino is one of those odd states within a state, a little like the Isle of Man or Andorra.

As the famous location of the TT races once was, San Marino remains something of a tax haven. Indeed, such places often attract the attention of certain businessmen who need somewhere to wash their ill gotten gains.

I mentioned last Friday that an article would appear in Il Sole 24 Ore on yet another scandal about to hit Italy, however this time, the scandal involves, or so it would appear, not politicians overusing their mobiles, but a large proportion of Italy’s banks.

Just what were these banks allegedly up to? Well, it all boils down to codes, hence the title of this post.

In Italy there is a clever computer system called Gianos (generatore indici di anomalia per operazioni sospette) which monitors all financial operations and draws suspicious movements of money to the attention of the authorities.  While Gianos is clever, it is not clever enough to reconcile movements to which a legitimate code has been attached.  Fortunately, artificial intelligence appears to have been overseen by human intelligence, and someone somewhere cottoned on to the fact that things were maybe not completely in order.

Apparently, around 14 billion Euros had been transferred into the San Marino International Bank before Italian magistrate Fabio Di Vizio (Vizio = ‘vice’ in Italian…) of Forli was called in to to do his Sherlock stuff, and he and his team uncovered that in around 80% of cases, Italian banks had made mistakes regarding transaction codes.

Alarm bells rang, and Mario Draghi, the governor of the Bank of Italy sent a memo to all Italian banks stating that there appeared to be a higher than normal incidence of inaccurate transaction codes concerning transfers to San Marino.

Mr Draghi then wrote another little note, this time to San Marino. In this missive, he pointed out that, normally, security vans transporting sums of money into San Marino were required to declare just how much cash was crossing the border.  However, it transpires, no such declarations had been made.

I have it on authority that the sums that have been floating away over into San Marino are suspected to be much, much greater than the already substantial 14 billion Euros.

As to who should be exploiting the incapacity of Italian banks to use the correct codes, apparently fingers are slowly being pointed in the direction of another country which is also well known for well organised ‘businessmen’.

When more comes to light, I shall shed more light on this comedy of errors.

Antiberlusconism

‘Antiberlusconism’ is a term which is being bandied around more and more at the moment in Italy. It is almost as if quite a few Italians are starting to feel sorry for Italy’s much persecuted prime ministerial billionaire.

Should the long of the law ever manage to catch up with Silvio, he’ll probably achieve a form of martyrdom. At least this is the impression I’m starting to get. One wonders whether Berlusconi bashing is destined to become something of a minority sport. … Continue Reading

Di Pietro Nil, Berlusconi Won

One Italian politician has had the guts to stand up and say in no uncertain terms that Berlusconi, who promised to represert the interests of the Italian people, is making passing parliamentary time passing Berlusconi protection laws. Such laws are not really in the interests of Italy’s people, unless, that is, such people happen to have a first name like ‘Silvio’ and possess ‘Berlusconi’ as a surname.

Yet, despite Di Pietro having pointed out what is to most Italians, excuse the vulgarity, bloody obvious, Italy’s only honest politician is taking an enormous amount of flack from Berlusconi’s cronies.  Mr Di Pietro is being accused of vulgarity, insulting behaviour, and of, shock horror, bringing down the tone of Italian politics.

Voice of reason nil, voices of cronyism won. And Italy keeps bumbling along.

Wonders of Milan

On Saturday, we took the wee one who must be occupied for a trip up to Como, but the big one, me, who must take photos, was forbidden from taking my trusty Canon. By way of revenge, sort of, and true to mad dogs and Englishmen form, I exploited a free afternoon while wee one and mum went to the pool, to wander around, armed with my newish Tokina 12-14mm wide angle lens, and take a few practice shots around the main and back streets of Milan.

Here is an incredible apartment block which is just across the road from the St Ambrogio church.

Yes, I know it is distorted, but I like this kind of perspective. The bright, and hot, sun washed the colours out a bit, but playing with the saturation, I managed to add some strength to the tones.

This is one of the St Ambrogio towers:

Here is Piazza Cadorna, and one of my ’tilt’ phase photos:

Atman, the Manchester Terrier

Our little pup is now one. He’s still a mischievous little rascal, and we are not convinced that the neutering operation he was subjected to a few months back has really done a great job in calming him down. Also, he appears to be madly in love with the next door neighbours male dog and has been doing his best to, er, molest the other mutt. Not the sort of behaviour you would expect from a testicleless dawg!

Here is a shot of the confused pup which I took yesterday:

Silvio Must Be Fuming!

Mr B, Italy’s charismatic prime minister is probably not a very happy chappy.  A recent article in Italian news magazine L’Espresso concerned, amongst other things, telephone conversations which took place between Italy’s current prime minister and a RAI TV executive last year.

Apparently, these conversations involve, it is alleged, Berlusconi, who wanted to help out some of his TV friends, and who, it is claimed, offered to support the business interests of one Agostino Saccà.  Saccà, who is currently under suspension, is/was RAI’s head of fiction.

In another tapped conversation with one Giancarlo Innocenzi, a member of Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom), was overhead chatting with Berlusco about valuable contracts for certain Mediaset producers. As the Italian newspapers are pointing out, this would appear to indicate that Mr B has not, as he has himself claimed, taken a back seat with regard to the management of his very own Mediset TV empire.

Wait for fresh allegations of confilicts of linterest to be levelled at Italy’s current head of parliament.

Around 9,000 (yes, nine thousand) calls have been deposited with the authorities in Naples who are investigating further allegations of corruption against good old Silvio.

Despite Berlusco’s attempts to whizz through anti-telephone tapping legislation, he does not appear to have moved fast enough to have blocked the recent publication of transcripts.  Berlusconi’s lawyer is also unhappy and making noises to the effect that this current episode clearly justifies the anti-telephone tapping legislation proposals.

One thing, OK, two things, are clear, either Berlusconi never bought one of these, or, he did, but they don’t work!