Vimet bet €30M on two local banks — both collapsed, and the gold giant was bankrupt

Vimet S.p.A. was a Vicenza gold processing and trading company founded in 1970, described as one of the first companies nationally — and beyond — for size in the processing and marketing of precious metals. In 2012 it reached a turnover of almost €800 million.

From 2012, Vimet invested around €30 million in shares of Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza, the two local banks that themselves collapsed in 2017. The stake was almost completely zeroed. In early 2016 the Guardia di Finanza opened a tax-fraud investigation into its large-scale gold trading, and the Arezzo refiner Chimet complained it had not been paid €10 million for delivered gold. Vimet filed for a creditor-protection arrangement (concordato con riserva) in summer 2016 and was declared bankrupt on 3 March 2017.

The liabilities came to about €150 million, of which €121 million were debts to banks; the concordato passivo reported in the application exceeded €163 million. Il Sole 24 Ore later reported that 2.1 tonnes of gold had disappeared from the warehouses of Vimet and the Trevigiano company Tecnigold.