Carlo Pesenti (born
1907
Events
January
* January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.
February
* February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...
in
Alzano Lombardo
Alzano Lombardo (Bergamasque: ) is a in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy, northern Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsul ...
; died
September 20
Events Pre-1600
*1058 – Agnes of Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary meet to negotiate about the border territory of Burgenland.
*1066 – At the Battle of Fulford, Harald Hardrada defeats earls Morcar and Edwin.
* 1187 – Saladin ...
,
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
) was an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
entrepreneur. From 1946 until his death, he was director of the
Italcementi
Italcementi is an Italian multinational company, quoted on the Borsa Italiana, which produces cement, ready-mix concrete and construction aggregates. In 2015, 45% of Italcementi was acquired by HeidelbergCement, together forming the world's se ...
Group and its affiliated companies and banks. He was also the main shareholder of the newspapers
''La Notte'' and ''Il Giornale di Bergamo'' and, until the end of the 1960s, owner of the car manufacturer
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...
. At one point, he sat on the supervisory boards of over 20 companies and also had excellent political contacts. Following a fraud scandal in the late 1970s, Pesenti lost control of most of his companies.
Biography
Carlo Pesenti was born into the influential Pesenti family, who originated from
Bergamo
Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...
in
Lombardy
The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
and were considered staunch
Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
. Italcementi, which Carlo inherited in 1946, was founded in the early 19th century as a sawmill and paper mill and entered the cement production business in the late 20th century under the leadership of his uncle
Antonio Pesenti. Carlo Pesenti, son of Augusto Pesenti and cousin of Antonio Pesenti, attended the Collegio dei Padri Barnabiti in
Moncalieri
Moncalieri (; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of 56,134 inhabitants (31 January 2022) about directly south of downtown Turin (to whose Metropolitan City of Turin, Metropolitan City it belongs), in Piedmont, Italy. It is the most populous suburb ...
and then enrolled in mechanical engineering at the
Polytechnic University of Milan
The Polytechnic University of Milan (, abbreviated as PoliMi) is a university in Milan, Italy. It is the largest technical university in the country, with about 40,000 enrolled students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and higher ...
, graduating in 1933. He then worked for the family business, becoming its managing director and general manager in 1942. Because he was considered politically unreliable, he was expelled from the company during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and is even said to have spent several days in prison. In 1946, he took full control of the company, as he was considered untainted, whereas his uncle Antonio had close ties to the old
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
regime and was forced to leave the company.
[Giuseppe Turani (1980), ''Padroni senza cuore'', Milan: Rizzoli, 1980. pp 76-113.]
Under the leadership of the shrewd businessman Pesenti, Italcementi benefited from the
post-war economic upturn and construction boom in Europe, enabling it to become one of the world's largest cement manufacturers. However, the business was not limited to cement, as the ambitious Pesenti built up a conglomerate. In 1946,
Italmobiliare was founded as a subsidiary to serve as a holding company for Pesenti's financial and banking activities. In search of financing, his connections to the
Curia
Curia (: curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally probably had wider powers, they came to meet ...
of Bergamo enabled him to acquire the
Banca Provinciale Lombarda, an institution closely linked to the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. In the 1950s, his company controlled half of the Italian cement market and expanded into the insurance business with the acquisition of
Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà. Other important acquisitions during this period included
Franco Tosi Meccanica
Franco Tosi (formerly known as ''Franco Tosi & C.'', now called ''Franco Tosi Meccanica'') is an Italian engineering business currently concentrated on the production of turbines, boilers, heat exchangers and pumps. It is located in Legnano n ...
, a large stake in the
Falck steelworks, and the newspaper ''Giornale di Bergamo.'' In 1952, he also founded the Milan-based ''La Notte'', a daily newspaper with an
anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
orientation, which he financed.
Pesenti was known for leading a secluded life and not flaunting his wealth. He was known to have only two great passions: banking (primarily linked to his desire to always have access to sources of liquidity) and luxury cars. In keeping with this, he acquired the car manufacturer
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...
in 1955 for 10 billion
lira
Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...
, but it was not integrated into Italcementi and remained legally independent. In 1958, he also took on the role of vice president of the company. However, his involvement in the car business was not very successful, and in the mid-1960s, the company fell into a serious crisis, leading Pesenti to sell it to
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
in 1969 after
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
decided against a takeover. Business was more successful in the financial sector, where, under Pesenti's leadership, eight financial institutions previously controlled by
Christian Democrat
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian ethics#Politics, Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo ...
politician
Teresio Guglielmone were merged to form the
Istituto Bancario Italiano, the second-largest private bank in the country, which was controlled by his family holding company Italmobiliare. The deal also had a political component, as the eight merged financial institutions had previously served primarily as a slush fund for the
Democrazia Cristiana
Christian Democracy (, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the nominal successor of the Italian People's Party (1919), Italian ...
, which feared a major scandal.
In 1969, however, Pesenti was confronted with a takeover attempt by
Michele Sindona
Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a banker for the Sicilian Mafia and the Vatican. Sindona was a member of the fascist Propagand ...
, then a fifty-year-old lawyer who wanted to enter the big world of finance. With funds from the British bank
Hambros (now a subsidiary of the French
Société Générale
Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby i ...
), he bought shares in Italmobiliare with the aim of taking control of Pesenti's financial empire. Pesenti then went to Rome to ask politicians for help. He demanded something in return for the favor he had done them by saving Guglielmone's banks. Finance Minister
Emilio Colombo
Emilio Colombo (; 11 April 1920 – 24 June 2013) was an Italian politician. A member of the Christian Democracy party, he served as Prime Minister of Italy from August 1970 to February 1972. In 2003, he was appointed senator for life, a seat h ...
and
Guido Carli
Guido Carli (28 March 1914 – 23 April 1993) was an Italian banker, economist, and politician. His father was the prominent fascist sociologist Filippo Carli.
Biography
He was the son of Filippo Carli (1876–1938), a university professor of ...
, governor of the
Banca d'Italia
The Bank of Italy (Italian language, Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', , informally referred to as ''Bankitalia'') is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Italy within the Eurosystem. It was the Italian central bank from ...
, demanded that Sindona should sell back his shares in Italmobiliare to Pesenti. Pesenti finally paid 50 billion lira (Sindona had paid 35 billion for the shares), which was necessary to regain control of Italcementi. Almost ten years later, it was revealed how this money had come into Pesenti's possession: it had been transferred to him via two offshore financial companies in
Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
and
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...
by Banca Provinciale Lombarda (which, as mentioned, was controlled by Italmobiliare, which in turn was controlled by Italcementi), who in turn passed it on to Sindona and Hambros in exchange for the shares.
The affair came to light in the late 1970s when two managers of Banca Provinciale Lombarda, Emilio Duchi, head of the bank's securities department, and Gaetano Bianco, his colleague, were dismissed for a series of incidents that were never fully clarified involving allegedly risky investments that had caused the bank losses amounting to billions. In early 1979, the two former managers filed a complaint with the Milan public prosecutor's office, revealing that Banca Lombarda had concealed the hidden loan of 50 billion lira for the repurchase of Italmobiliare (which was never repaid) through fraudulent accounting. The 50 billion lira had now become 180 billion lira of debt, putting Pesenti in serious financial difficulty. As a result of the affair, Pesenti lost most of his business empire, retaining only control of the industrial activities.
In July 1984, Banca Lombarda was sold as the last of the three family banks for an amount never officially confirmed, estimated at around 480 billion lira. At that time, Pesenti was also being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor's office in connection with the collapse of
Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" () by the press because of his close business dealings with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed ...
's
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that was established in 1896 and collapsed in 1982. The Vatican-based Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the ''Vatican Bank'', was Banco Ambrosiano's main shareholder. The Vatican Bank was ...
, who was a close business associate of Pesenti. Pesenti had become the second largest shareholder in Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, three months before Calvi died mysteriously in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
In September 1984, Pesenti traveled to Canada to undergo medical tests at the
Montreal General Hospital
The Montreal General Hospital (MGH) () is a hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada established in the years 1818–1820. The hospital received its charter in 1823. It is currently part of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and is located ...
, having previously undergone heart surgery in
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
in the United States. During his hospital stay, his condition suddenly deteriorated and Pesenti died on September 20, 1984. Pesenti left behind his wife Rosalie and four children. At the time of his death, he was still under investigation for irregular transactions involving Banco Ambrosiano shares and dubious financial dealings with the
Vatican Bank
Vatican may refer to:
Geography
* Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy
* Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City
* Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome
* Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
.
Political connections
Pesenti belonged to Italy's conservative Catholic establishment and had close ties to the financial and industrial elite. He was anti-communist and a supporter of the Democrazia Cristiana, with whom he entered into a close client relationship that pushed the boundaries of legality. Pesenti is also said to have financed the right-wing extremist and terrorist
Avanguardia Nazionale
The National Vanguard () is a name that has been used for at least two neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups in Italy.
Original group
The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary movement formed as a breakaway group from the Italian Social ...
. As an important European industrialist, he was well connected throughout Europe and participated in the meetings of the
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973, principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...
. He also attended meetings of
Le Cercle
Le Cercle is a invitation-only foreign policy forum. Initially its focus was opposing communism and, in the 1970s and 1980s, supporting apartheid when the group had intimate ties with and funding from South Africa. The group was described by Briti ...
, a conspiratorial forum for cooperation between conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic. In his autobiography,
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Bank, Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of ...
refers to Le Cercle as the “Pesenti group” and states that he first learned of its existence in October 1967, when he was invited by Carlo Pesenti to join it.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pesenti, Carlo
1984 deaths
1907 births
Italian businesspeople
Italian publishers (people)
Italian industrialists