ROME (Reuters) -Italy’s finance police have searched the office of Telecom Italia’s chief of procurement as part of an investigation into alleged private corruption, according to a search warrant seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
TIM, which said the search was carried out on Wednesday morning without disclosing the name of the manager, said it was working with investigators and to determine whether it had been damaged by the alleged crime.
A source briefed on the matter said the former phone monopoly could hold an extraordinary board meeting on the case as soon as this evening.
Earlier Rome prosecutors said in a statement they had requested searches of the offices and homes of two people who work for TIM and for the Italian subsidiary of Japan’s NTT Data, NTT Data Italia, as part of preliminary investigations.
In the warrant, Rome prosecutors allege that TIM’s head of procurement Simone De Rose received, “in the context of a corrupt relationship between private individuals”, 50,000 euros ($53,875) from an NTT Data Italia manager.
De Rose did not respond to Reuters’ calls and messages seeking a comment. NTT Data Italia had no immediate comment, and NTT Data officials in Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Milan-listed shares in TIM were down more than 2% by 1130 GMT, lagging a slightly negative Italian blue chip index , with traders citing the reported police searches.
($1 = 0.9281 euros)
(Reporting by Marco Carta, Giulia Segreti in Rome, and Elvira Pollina in Milan; additional reporting by Andrea Mandala; editing by Cristina Carlevaro, Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)
