MILAN, March 11 (Reuters) - Italy's top appeals court hasrejected an attempt to overthrow a verdict that last yearacquitted former UniCredit head Alessandro Profumo and 19 otherbank managers in an alleged tax fraud case at the Italianlender, a judicial source said.
The case centred on a 245 million euro ($272 million)suspected tax fraud resulting from a complex financial scheme,known as Project Brontos, set up by Barclays to allow UniCreditto pay lower taxes between 2007 and 2009.
In March last year a Rome judge cleared Profumo, who leftUniCredit in 2010, and the other 19 people but prosecutorsappealed the decision.
The source said on Friday the top court had declared theappeal inadmissible, meaning the acquittal is now final.
"UniCredit...expresses its full satisfaction having alwaysmaintained, with the utmost conviction, that its representativesand employees, including those who have left the bank, alwaysacted correctly," a UniCredit spokesman said.
Prosecutors had alleged the Brontos financial scheme helpedUniCredit depict part of its income as dividends allowing it tobenefit from a more favourable tax rate under Italian law.($1 = 0.9008 euros) (Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio, writing by Valentina Za;editing by Susan Thomas)
Barclays (BARC)