Denis Verdini (born 8 May 1951) is an Italian politician, banker, and convicted felon.

Biography

Born in Fivizzano, he graduated in Political Sciences and later became president of the local cooperative bank Credito Cooperativo Fiorentino. A local councillor for the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 189 ...

in the late 1980s, he began his political career in the

Italian Republican Party The Italian Republican Party ( it, Partito Repubblicano Italiano, PRI) is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy. The PRI has old roots and a long histo ...

, without being elected in the

1994 Italian general election The 1994 Italian general election was held on 27 and 28 March 1994 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic for the 12th legislature. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition won a large majority in the Chambe ...

s. After

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...

's victory in those elections, he became a member of his

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

party. He was subsequently elected in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. He is a minor shareholder (15%) of the newspaper ''

Il Foglio ''Il Foglio'' (English: "The Paper") is an Italian centrist daily newspaper with circulation around 25.000 copies per day (with an overall spread of 47.000). It was founded in 1996 by the Italian journalist and politician Giuliano Ferrara after ...

''. In 2009, after Berlusconi created

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 ...

, he was named member of the national coordination office, together with

Ignazio La Russa Ignazio Benito Maria La Russa (born 18 July 1947) is an Italian politician who is serving as President of the Senate of the Republic since 13 October 2022. He is the first politician with a neo-fascist background to hold the position of Presid ...

and

Sandro Bondi Sandro Bondi (born 14 May 1959) is an Italian politician. He served as minister of culture from 2008 to 2011, in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. Biography Bondi was born in Fivizzano, province of Massa-Carrara, Italy. He first attended school at Lau ...

. On 23 July 2010 he resigned as president of Credito Cooperativo Fiorentino after his involvement in the so-called "P3" scandal, in which he has been charged for participation in illegal secret activities, aiming to influence the verdict of the

Italian Constitutional Court The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic ( it, Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana) is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name ''Consulta'' is used as a metonym for it, because its sess ...

regarding the

Lodo Alfano The Lodo Alfano (roughly "Alfano Law"), named after Berlusconi's Minister of Justice Angelino Alfano, was an Italian law, valid between 2008 and 2009, granting immunity from prosecution to the four highest political offices in Italy (the President ...

(the law was later declared anti-constitutional). In July 2015, Verdini left

and founded a new political party

Liberal Popular Alliance The Liberal Popular Alliance, whose full name was Liberal Popular Alliance – Autonomies ( it, Alleanza Liberalpopolare – Autonomie, ALA), was a centrist and liberal political party in Italy. ALA members were known as ''Verdiniani'', from the ...

, in support of Matteo Renzi's government. In March 2016 the Senator Denis Verdini was sentenced by the Seventh Criminal Chamber of the Court of Rome to two years for complicity in corruption relating for the renovation of the Marshals School of Florence.Denis Verdini condannato a 2 anni per corruzione per Scuola dei Marescialli. Minoranza dem e M5s attaccano Renzi
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References

External links

Profile at ''Italian Chamber of Deputies'' Official website
(in Italian) 1951 births Living people Forza Italia politicians People from the Province of Massa-Carrara Italian Republican Party politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) The People of Freedom politicians Forza Italia (2013) politicians Members of the Senate of the Republic (Italy) {{Italy-politician-ThePeopleofFreedom-stub