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MILAN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A trial into alleged false
accounting at the Italian unit of British Telecom in 2015
and 2016 opened in Milan on Tuesday, with 20 defendants,
including two former senior BT executives and the Italian
subsidiary itself, facing charges.
Milan prosecutors allege that a network of BT Italy
employees inflated revenues, faked contract renewals and
invoices and invented bogus supplier transactions in order to
disguise the unit's true financial performance.
BT took a 530 million pound ($725 million) charge in its
accounts in 2017 relating to the alleged false accounting.
All the defendants have always denied any wrongdoing.
The case will be heard in a high-security courtroom on the
outskirts of Italy's financial capital, usually chosen for Mafia
trials but now to comply with coronavirus restrictions.
Under Italian law, a company can also be prosecuted for
offences committed by its managers in its own interest.
In a written response to Reuters when a judge sent the
defendants to trial in November, BT said it was disappointed but
confident in its defence.
The first hearing of such trials is mainly procedural, with
a possible decision on whether to admit as civil parties those
who believe they have been harmed, including U.S. pension fund,
Pension Reserve Investment Management.
Among the defendants are Richard Cameron, former chief
financial officer of BT Global Services, and Corrado Sciolla,
formerly BT's head of continental Europe.
Both have denied any wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi; Editing by Keith Weir and
Alexander Smith)
