[1] Its purpose was to foster the development of the so-called Tavoliere delle Puglie, one of the poorest areas of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but its hidden purpose was probably to defraud Mr. Van-Aken, an investor from Bruxelles who was planning to invest about two million ducats in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on behalf of Dutch and Belgian bankers.
As stated by Italian economist Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi, the purpose of all the banks in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was to commit some kind of bankruptcy fraud,[2] leading to serious harm to the economy of the kingdom, and this was exacerbarted by widespread corruption in the field of justice.
For a certain period, through a note posted at the Naples Stock Exchange, a sort of alert was issued to the sailors of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies so that they could take all appropriate measures to deal with any retaliation by Belgians and Dutch (and among these also the possibility of changing the flag of the ship).
[5] While the Baron of Heccheren was negotiating with the government of Naples, the governments of Belgium and Netherlands asked for the intervention of the Pope to resolve the matter and Pope Gregory XVI ordered the nuncio of Naples to speak directly with king Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies.
In 1845 the bank's shareholders "took what remained of their money, losing about eighty percent" of their initial capital of about two million ducats.