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Sicilian Challenge. Probably no one has done more to shake the country's old financial structure than Michele Sindona, 49, a Sicilian lawyer who came to Milan as a tax expert in 1947 and now heads a financial empire that spans three continents. Sindona, who learned how holding companies operate while helping leading corporations get around Italy's obsolete and cumbersome tax laws, formed his own financial company, Fasco, and began buying and selling companies.
He leaped from obscurity to international prominence in 1964, when he took over the U.S.-owned Libby, McNeill & Libby and the Brown Paper Company of Berlin, N.H. Later he sold both firms at a profit, and has since bought and sold his way to the presidency or chief executive's seat of eight companies, the vice-presidency of three others, and board membership in several more. His financial acumen stood him in good stead, last September, when he gained control of the Società Nazionale Sviluppo Imprese Industrial!, a private fief of Venetian financiers, and transformed it into an international merchant bank.
Sindona's moves have shaken the confidence of the financial old guard, who now worry where he will strike next. He hopes to attract more U.S. investment to Italy, both for joint ventures between Italian and American companies, and for outright takeovers of Italian firms by Americans. As Sindona sees it, that is the only way Italian business can hope to catch up with U.S. business in organization and management technique.