Vito Bonsignore (born 3 July 1943 in

Bronte, Catania __NOTOC__ Bronte ( aae, Brontë) is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Catania, in Sicily, southern Italy. The town is situated approximately west-northwest from Mount Etna, on the side of the valley of the Simeto river, and about we ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Biography

Bonsignore graduated in economics and commerce in

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

, he was manager of the Turin-Alessandria-Piacenza (SATAP) motorway company, where he gradually held increasingly important roles, up to the position technical director and general manager. He was also Director of the Italian Mobiliar Institute (IMI) and INSUD S.p.A. He has been member of the central direction of the

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, from 1970 to 1980 he was municipal councilor of

Venaria Reale Venaria Reale ( pms, La Venerìa) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northwest of Turin. Venaria Reale borders the municipalities of Robassomero, Caselle Torinese, Druent ...

, MP in the Chamber of Deputies (from 1987 to 1994) and Undersecretary of the Budget (from 1992 to 1993) in the Giuliano Amato government. He was also elected MEP twice, the first time in 2004 on the UDC list (in the

North-West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east ...

, north-west constituency), the second time in 2009 on

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

's list, receiving over 53,000 personal preferences. He was a member of the

European People's Party group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...

of which he was vice-president. He sat on the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

Committee on Budgetary Control The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) is a committee of the European Parliament. with 30 permanent members. It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesirable developments within EU institutio ...

and its

Committee on Budgets The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) is a committee of the European Parliament. It has 41 members plus 39 substitute members. The committee's current chair is Jean Arthuis, who has held this position since 7 July 2014.ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. On 16 November 2013 he joined the

New Centre-Right New Centre-Right ( it, Nuovo Centrodestra, NCD) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The party was launched on 15 November 2013 by a group of dissidents of The People of Freedom (PdL) who opposed the party's transformation into Forza Ita ...

led by

Angelino Alfano Angelino Alfano (; born 31 October 1970) is an Italian former politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 12 December 2016 to 1 June 2018. Alfano was Minister of the Interior from 28 April 2013 to 12 December 2016, serving in the g ...

Conviction

He has been convicted and sentenced to 2 years for attempted

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

in the construction of a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

. During ''

Mani pulite ''Mani pulite'' (; Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called " First Republic" and the disappearance of many Italian ...

'' (in Turin), he has been accused by Alberto Zamorani to have accepted more than 100 million of lire as under-secretary of the Budget (1992), hidden in a chocolate box. This assertion turned out to be groundless as it did not result in any actual charge or imputation. In 2011 he was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 600,000 euros, together with the financier

Emilio Gnutti Emilio Gnutti is an Italian financier and founder of the Hopa SpA holding company. He was involved in many important takeovers, most notably the one of Telecom Italia made in 1999 with Roberto Colaninno, and the subsequent sale of the company to ...

, the builder Gaetano Caltagirone and the industrialists Ettore Lonati and Tiberio Lonati. Same penalty for Stefano Ricucci,

Giovanni Leoni Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

Giuseppe Statuto Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it. The feminine form of the name is Giuse ...

, Danilo Coppola, for the

Unipol Unipol Gruppo S.p.A. is an Italian financial services holding company operating in the insurance and banking fields with headquarters in the Unipol Tower, Bologna. As of 2009 it was ranked as the country's fourth-largest insurer. The company tra ...

climb. On 6 December 2013 the Milan Court of Appeal totally overturns the first degree sentence and acquits him because "the fact does not exist": in the grounds of the sentence, in fact, the judges of the third penal section write that the alleged occult pact between Unipol, the "friendly banks" and the so-called "contropattisti" was only a "theorem" brought to trial and based on "mere perceptions, inferences or presumptions". On 6 May 2015, the Cassation confirmed the acquittal by putting an end to the affair.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsignore, Vito 1943 births Living people People from Bronte, Sicily Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Christian Democratic Centre politicians Union of the Centre (2002) politicians The People of Freedom politicians New Centre-Right politicians Popular Alternative politicians Deputies of Legislature X of Italy Deputies of Legislature XI of Italy Politicians from the Province of Catania Union of the Centre (2002) MEPs The People of Freedom MEPs MEPs for Italy 2009–2014 MEPs for Italy 2004–2009 Italian politicians convicted of corruption